Baseball: Kaneland uses 11-run 5th to break open game with L-P

OGLESBY – With the Kaneland baseball team off to a slow start this season, coach Brian Aversa challenged his players at practice April 4.

“It’s nowhere near where we were expecting,” Aversa said about the start to the season. “So we went through each player and said, ‘Hey, this is what you need to do.’ Some guys get on base, some guys hit those guys in, other guys swipe bases, and other guys go on the mound and shut things down.

“For the most part, everybody was right on par with what we expected of them. They responded well. I’m very happy with the way we performed.”

The result was a 14-4, five-inning victory over La Salle-Peru in an Interstate 8 Conference game at Dickinson Field, forcing a series split after the Cavaliers won April 3 in Maple Park.

“Conference games matter,” Kaneland third baseman Collin Miller said. “We have to win those. Practice [April 4] was tough. We got into it. We got back into focus on things and it paid off.”

The Knights (4-4, 1-1) and Cavs (5-4, 1-1) went back and forth through four innings before Kaneland broke the game open in the fifth. Kaneland sent 16 to the plate in the fifth and recorded six hits, took five walks, had a hit batter and capitalized on two L-P errors to score 11 runs.

“Everybody kept chipping away, chipping away,” Aversa said. “We had a big inning we needed. We worked their pitcher and got into the bullpen. Good things happen when you can do that, so I’m really happy with how we approached it.

“We just talked about putting it on the next guy. Don’t try to do too much. ... We want to get on base, let the next guy move people around and the next guy hit those guys in and just keep putting it on the next guy. We want to make them work and make them feel the pressure.”

An error, a walk and a single loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth for Kaneland before Parker Violett drew a walk to bring in a run.

Miller then delivered his first two-run single of the inning with a hit to right field.

Anthony Campise followed with a ground ball up the middle, which L-P shortstop Jack Jereb fielded near the bag, bobbled and stepped on the base before being knocked over by a sliding Miller.

The umpires initially ruled Miller out at second and Campise out at first, prompting a discussion with Aversa.

The umpires then put Campise back on first, which led to a discussion with L-P coach Matt Glupczynski.

Despite the lengthy stoppage, the Knights kept the rally going, scoring six more runs.

Zach Konrad had an RBI single, Alex Panico ripped a two-run single and Miller capped the scoring with his second two-run single of the inning.

“We were just hitting the ball, being aggressive,” Miller said. “We were getting balls in play, making them make mistakes. We got on base and we got runs. We just hopped back into things [after the delay]. We didn’t dwell on it too much that the game was stopped. Next pitch, we were ready to go.”

Kaneland starter Jackson Kottmeyer closed out the game with a scoreless bottom of the fifth, getting a strikeout with runners on first and second. He allowed four runs on eight hits with two strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter.

L-P starter Mason Lynch was pulled in the fifth after Miller’s first two-RBI single in favor of Nolan Van Duzer.

“I thought up until the fifth it was a heck of a game,” Glupczynski said. “Then in the fifth, it got away from us. We did some things that were uncharacteristic of us and I thought we lost focus a little bit and that caused us to boot the ball around a little and drop a couple pop ups. We should have been out of that inning and not given up 11 runs. We just have to learn from it and get better.”

The Cavs started strong as Lynch threw a perfect first inning and then hit an opposite field solo home run in the bottom half.

Kaneland responded with two runs in the second but L-P answered with a solo homer by Billy Mini.

The teams scored a run each in the third before L-P went ahead 4-3 in the fourth on an RBI single by Adrian Arzola.