Baseball: Trey Hernandez, Oswego rally past Yorkville in the seventh, take one-game lead in SPC West race

YORKVILLE – Trey Hernandez struggled to find the barrel in his swing throughout Monday’s game, so he kept it simple with the game on the line.

And found open real estate.

Hernandez’s two-strike, two-out chopper up the middle squirted through the infield, bringing home the tying and go-ahead runs in the top of the seventh. Oswego held on to beat Yorkville 5-4 in the first of a three-game series, and coupled with Oswego East’s loss to Plainfield North took a one-game lead in the Southwest Prairie West race with two games to play.

“Bats weren’t as hot as they usually are, they did a great job carrying my back,” said Hernandez, an Oswego senior and Waubonsee recruit. “The last thing I wanted to do was strike three looking. Just put the bat on the ball, let things happen, came through when I needed to.”

Cade Duffin homered and doubled in a run for Oswego (21-10, 10-3), which led for five innings, but lost it with Yorkville’s three-run sixth, then rallied in the seventh.

The Foxes (14-14, 7-6) loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the seventh for Northwestern recruit Nate Harris, who had homered earlier. But Oswego reliever Dominic Stringham got Harris to pop out to Duffin at first, to a sigh of relief from the Oswego dugout.

“Harris is a great player, but I knew Dom, he’s been good for us all year,” Duffin said. “This is a good Yorkville team. I wish this would be easy so my emotions aren’t so up and down, but this is a good hard-fought win.”

Oswego’s winning rally started with Ben Hernandez’s two-strike leadoff single, and Luke Voelker beat out a bunt single. A Chase Gerwig sacrifice, and strikeout, set the stage for Hernandez’s late heroics.

“I was just working on staying through the middle and helping my team in any way possible,” Trey Hernandez said. “I for sure knew [the comeback] was coming. Our pitching has been huge, but even when things aren’t going great they know we have their backs any given day. Even when we get down we’re getting that run back.”

Hernandez had been 0-for-3 Monday up to that point, but there is no hitter Oswego coach Joe Giarrante would rather have up in that spot.

“He puts the ball in play a lot,” Giarrante said. “He always seems to find hits like that trying not to be too big. Ben’s hit was the same way. We’ve been preaching to our guys no quit until the last out has been called. That’s exactly what they did today.”

The same could be said for Yorkville, which dropped its second straight one-run game that came down to the final at bat but showed grit in rallying to get there.

The Foxes, save for Harris’ homer, were shut down for five innings by Oswego starting pitcher Eddie Scaccia. Scaccia struck out eight, retiring 11 batters in a row after Harris’ first-inning homer.

But in the sixth Connor Nameche singled, Daniel Rodriguez was hit by a pitch, Nameche scored on a wild pitch and Jackson Roberts squeezed in the tying run. With two outs, Kam Yearsley, who had walked, came home with the go-ahead run on a double steal.

“It would have been easy for our guys to just say we’re done, let’s go home. To their credit in that sixth inning they grinded and made some adjustments at the plate,” Yorkville coach Tom Cerven said. “We haven’t had a lot of tense games, close, competitive. Today and the game on Saturday with Bolingbrook were really the first we’ve had to be honest. Even though we came out on the wrong side both times, we have found a way to put ourselves in good positions.”

Cerven was also encouraged by what he saw from starting pitcher LeBaron Lee, who struck out eight over five innings. Lee walked five, but allowed just two hits and struck out the side in his final inning.

“This and the last one, he’s starting to throw with some confidence,” Cerven said. “Whenever LeBaron is confident it usually works out for him. Today and the game with Minooka he has settled in and has thrown really well.”