Baseball: Northwestern recruit Nate Harris, Yorkville bats break out, blast past West Aurora

AURORA – Nate Harris is not sneaking up on anyone anymore.

As the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Yorkville junior, a Northwestern recruit, settles into his second varsity season, he’s growing accustomed to the star treatment. Harris rarely sees hittable pitches early in the count, a sign of respect for the thunder in his bat.

“I try my best to stay aggressive, look for pitches to hit early in the count, look to get ahead,” Harris said. “I’m looking to get bat on ball, hit something hard, hit something far, see what happens.”

Harris made things happen Monday.

He crushed his third home run of the season, doubled twice and reached base all four times and scored four runs. Harris highlighted a breakout game from Yorkville’s offense in a 13-2, five-inning Southwest Prairie West win at West Aurora.

Harris’ leadoff walk started a four-run third, and he doubled in two runs during a six-run Foxes’ fifth inning. That was a welcome sight for Yorkville (8-8, 1-2), which has scored fewer than five runs in nine of 16 games and all eight of its losses.

“It definitely was a breakthrough on the offensive side,” Harris said. “Our guys were just looking for pitches to hit, being aggressive, not getting behind in the count. It was a good start to the week for sure, looking to build off this.”

Harris has put up numbers so far this season that most hitters would trade for – but seem modest for his abilities and reflect how he’s been treated with kid gloves. Harris came into Monday hitting .333 with eight extra-base hits and 16 runs scored, but just three runs batted in.

Yorkville coach Tom Cerven said he’d consider dropping Harris from the No. 2 spot in the order for more run-producing opportunities, but not while No. 3 hitter Kam Yearsley is cleaning up the way he is.

Cerven, meanwhile, noticed Harris’ confidence started to come back last week where he was seeing the ball well. When that happens, look out.

“Nate is one of those special guys for sure. When he’s confident there are not many kids like him,” Cerven said. “This season’s been part of him evolving as a hitter, that they’re going to treat him with respect. They’re not going to throw him many meatballs early in the count. They’re going to try to hit the corners. He was really disciplined today and was able to lay off some borderline pitches to put himself in good counts to where he forced them to throw hittable pitches. And he didn’t miss them.”

Harris certainly did not his third at-bat Monday, with one out in the fourth. He worked the count to 3-1 off West Aurora starter Lucas Aguirre, then turned on a fastball for a homer to left. Cerven, as the ball sailed toward helpless cars beyond the fence, didn’t think Harris got all of it despite the homer.

Harris begged to differ.

“I disagree on that. I felt I got it all,” Harris said. “I was looking for nothing but a fastball, got one inner half and turned on it.”

Michael Dopart had two singles and three RBIs, Everett Ford and Sebastian Westphal each had two singles and two RBIs, Jackson Roberts had an RBI double and Yearsley continued his red-hot start to the season, singling in Yorkville’s last two runs.

Yorkville starting pitcher Simon Skroch, a Minnesota recruit, reached base three times himself on an error, walk and single – and welcomed the support. Skroch was touched for two runs in the bottom of the first that tied it 2-2, but shut the door after that.

“I had a rough first inning, but we responded well,” Skroch said. “[All those runs] was kind of a change. Hopefully we can keep that going. I just forgot about that first inning. I found my rhythm and was able to find my mechanics.”

Indeed, Skroch gave up four hits in the first – but two were of the infield variety. He retired 11 batters in a row starting with the third out of the first inning, and struck out seven. Skroch blew a fastball past West Aurora star Ryan Niedzwiedz with two runners on to end it.

“To Simon’s credit today he was able to rein it back in and understand what he needed to do,” Cerven said. “The biggest thing I saw today from him that I loved is he was at the knees. Where he has been in trouble lately is he’s been at the belt and he hasn’t been getting those calls. He made the adjustment today to really hit the knees and kept the hitters on their heels where they couldn’t get comfortable.”

West Aurora (7-8, 1-3), which has already matched its win total from last season, got RBI doubles from Andrew Harvey and Jake Williams in the first inning.

But the Blackhawks could not overcome Yorkville’s four runs with two out in the third inning that erased a 2-2 tie.

“You talk about executing a couple pitches here and there. That’s the difference between getting out of an inning and tacking on some more,” West Aurora coach John Reeves said. “Just one inning kind of got out of control.”