Fieldcrest’s bats sizzle in opening-round regional win over WFC

WENONA – As the last out was made in the bottom of the fourth inning of Wednesday’s Class 2A regional opening-round contest between Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell and Fieldcrest, one WFC fan said to the person next to him as the teams switched sides, “This is the best-hitting team we’ve played all season, and there is no doubt about it.”

The No. 7-seeded Knights indeed had the bats in high gear as they pounded out 13 hits and scored in all four frames during a 14-1, five-inning victory over the No. 10-seeded Warriors.

The win sends Fieldcrest (11-7) on to Friday’s 4:30 p.m. semifinal against No. 2 seed Reed-Custer in Braidwood. WFC ends the season at 1-14.

“The guys’ approach at the plate today was really, really good. They waited for their pitch, and when they got they put a good swing on it.”

—  Fieldcrest coach Mark Brown.

“The guys’ approach at the plate today was really, really good. They waited for their pitch, and when they got they put a good swing on it,” Fieldcrest coach Mark Brown said. “There wasn’t a lot of high strikes being called, and I think that was an advantage for us. We were able to get our hands on top of the baseball, and when we can do that we can do some damage. We didn’t try to do too much at the plate and were ready to jump on the fastball when we got it.

“We’ve seen some pretty good pitching within our conference this season, so our hitting has somewhat been a little up and down. Today was a lot of good, hard contact that hopefully we can carry over into Friday’s game.”

Fieldcrest scored three times in the first off WFC starting and losing pitcher Carl Sass, as Timmy Luckey walked and came around to score on an error, while Noah Nordstrom smacked an RBI triple and Koy Allen a run-scoring double.

“That is a very good team over there, way better than their record says, that’s for sure,” WFC coach Todd “Bubs” Hoffman said. “They are doing what you want to do, playing their best baseball heading into the postseason.

“You just have to tip your cap to them, they just hit the snot out of the ball today. We made some good contact too, but a lot of them were right at them, and that is baseball sometimes.”

The hosts added five runs in the second inning, starting with Andrew May coaxing a one-out walk and scoring on a double over the center fielder’s head by winning pitcher Landon Cook (5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K). Luckey then followed with a line-drive homer just to the left of the 305 sign down the left-field line to make it 6-0. Bryce Nordstrom and Noah Nordstrom collected consecutive singles before Allen lined an RBI base hit off WFC reliever Ethan Schumm.

In the third, FHS scored three times on a sacrifice fly by Cook and a two-run single by Noah Nordstrom to make it 11-0.

WFC tallied in its half of the fourth off Cook, as Xander Boyles laced a leadoff single, advanced to second on a groundout, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a base hit to center from Will Weber.

“[Cook] did a great job of doing what we asked him to do, throw strikes and let the defense make the plays,” said Brown. “He did a really good job for us today of pounding the zone and keeping the game moving at a good pace. It was a plus that we were able to get him a bunch of runs early to let him kind of settle in.”

Fieldcrest closed out the scoring in its half of the fourth with a pair of runs scoring on wild pitches and Bryce Nordstrom bringing a run home on a groundout.

A bright spot in the loss for the Warriors came from second baseman Dylan Jenkins, who had a handful of fantastic plays on defense and reached base in both plate appearances.

“We have a young team with only one senior, so everyone will be back next year. There is also a pretty talented freshman class coming in, so the message after the game was to just stick together, get those kids to come out and keep their heads up, because this program is going to get better the next couple of years.”

—  WFC coach Todd “Bubs” Hoffman

“He had a career day in the field today and a good game against Marquette a couple of days ago,” Hoffman said of Jenkins. “He’s gotten an opportunity to play quite a bit here down the stretch. He’s a freshman that maybe didn’t get a ton of playing time early in the season, but he took advantage when he’s been called upon.

“We have a young team with only one senior, so everyone will be back next year. There is also a pretty talented freshman class coming in, so the message after the game was to just stick together, get those kids to come out and keep their heads up, because this program is going to get better the next couple of years.”