Baseball: MJ Ansari, Plainfield North relief hold off late Yorkville rally to win rubber game

PLAINFIELD – MJ Ansari, if past was prologue, had ample reason to doubt Plainfield North could hold its lead when he departed for the dugout Wednesday.

But he kept the faith.

“I knew [reliever Ethan Fleming] was going to get it done,” Ansari said. “He throws strikes, and that’s all we needed. Throw strikes, our defense will make a play.”

Fleming indeed got it done. He coaxed a game-ending flyout with the bases loaded and two out in the top of the seventh.

Two days after blowing a seven-run lead in the seventh inning at Oswego – the latest in a series of late meltdowns – the Tigers held on to beat Yorkville, 4-3, in the rubber game of the Southwest Prairie Conference West Division series.

“It feels really good to get the win, especially after we lost that game in the last inning,” Ansari said. “To come out and compete and wash away that feeling, after this whole week, it feels great.”

In the resumption of a game suspended the previous Wednesday after an inning, Yorkville (18-3, 3-2 SPC West) trailed 4-1 going into the seventh off Ansari, who had pitched all the way.

Matt Bivens and Isaiah Rodriguez singled to start the rally, and an out later Connor Corrigan blooped a single in front of a diving center fielder to load the bases. Nate Harris reached on an error to score Bivens, and after a strikeout Michael Hilker was plunked on the back with two strikes, making it 4-3.

But the Foxes, who rallied to beat West Aurora in extra innings Monday and scored six runs in the final two innings to beat Plainfield North last week, had their latest comeback fall a hit short on a frigid afternoon.

“Today’s conditions, it’s tough for anybody to hit. We knew today’s game would come down to a hit here or there, a little bit of luck, and for a lot of today’s game we didn’t have it,” Yorkville coach Tom Cerven said. “Made a little bit of a rally, just came up short.”

On the opposite end, Plainfield North coach John Darlington could breathe easier for a change.

The Tigers (10-7, 3-2) have lost games in the sixth or seventh inning six times this season. Darlington’s ace, Brandon Bak, has twice lost leads in the seventh.

“Up 4-1, we’re like, ‘This won’t be easy,’ and it wasn’t,” Darlington said. “It is what it is.”

Ansari, until running into trouble late, was stellar in a rare appearance.

The Tigers’ senior right-hander had thrown only two innings all season coming into Wednesday’s game, which was resumed at 1-1 in the second. Ansari, hardly showing any rust, threw five shutout innings leading up to seventh, striking out seven while allowing six hits.

“It was really my fastball – they couldn’t touch it. I was blowing them away with it,” Ansari said. “My curveball was iffy, but I was throwing it for strikes. Mainly it was my fastball.”

Noteworthy to Darlington, Ansari walked just one on a day hardly easy gripping the ball.

“Day like today, you have to play with the elements, and a guy who throws strikes is going to have a good opportunity to win. He did that,” Darlington said. “He threw the ball across the plate, threw a lot of fastballs, mixed speeds, kept them off balance. He ran out of pitches, or he probably would have finished it.”

The Tigers, on the contrary, capitalized on Yorkville free passes for their runs.

Foxes pitcher LeBaron Lee issued two one-out walks in the fourth inning of a 1-1 game, and John St. Clair blooped a single to load the bases. Lee came back to get a called third strike for the second out, but Bak followed with a sinking liner near the line that eluded Yorkville’s diving left fielder, clearing the bases to make it 4-1.

“With that lefty spin, honestly that’s probably more on the coaches for not getting our left fielder in a good enough position to make that play a little easier,” Cerven said. “That ball died fast, it tailed fast. It could have gone either way.”

Lee walked seven and hit two batters before leaving in the sixth. But the big left-handed junior, an Illinois State recruit, was dominant when in the zone, striking out six. He pitched out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the fifth, getting a strikeout and double play.

“LeBaron, when he is on, he is very dominant,” Cerven said. “He has a lot of good life on his fastball and a good curveball to go with it. He is still working through some things mechanically and every once in a while it will get away from him but I have been very impressed with the strides he’s made.”