Baseball: Burlington Central falls to Sycamore

The Burlington Central baseball team picked an inopportune time to get off to a rocky start.

Sycamore parlayed 6 hits, 3 walks, a pair of Rocket errors and a couple of fortuitous bounces into 8 runs in the first two innings, then held on for a 10-6 victory Saturday in the Class 3A Sycamore regional final.

The Rockets (20-11) made things interesting with 3 runs in the third and 3 more in the seventh before bringing the tying run to the plate.

"We've been playing great ball for the last five or six weeks, really clean, but they hit our mistakes early on and took really good at bats," said BC coach Kyle Nelson.

"Give our guys credit because it's really easy to go in the tank there down 9-0, but I'm really proud of the effort we put in to get the tying run to the plate."

It was a rough outing for Rockets starter Kyle Creadon, who allowed 6 runs in 1-plus innings.

Creadon was one out away from limiting the damage in the first, but Tyler Maveus delivered an RBI single for Sycamore (23-11) and Jacob Cavanaugh plated two with a blooper to right.

"Getting off to a 4-0 lead in a regional game is huge," said Sycamore coach Jason Cavanaugh.

Anthony Larson relieved Creadon with runners on first and third with no outs in the second and saw a series of plays go against his squad.

The Rockets committed a throwing error on a bunt and a potential double play grounder glanced off Larson's glove for an infield hit. A dropped transfer on another double play grounder to third extended the lead to 8-0.

"There were a couple of weird plays here and there," Nelson said. "Kyle's been fantastic this year, it was just one of those days where they had his number."

Kilian Vasica's single knocked in Craig Shuring and David Lauber for BC in the third and Josh Noeska crushed an RBI double to center to cut the deficit to 9-3.

Lauber tossed 4⅓ impressive innings in relief to give the Rockets a chance to rally.

"I had all my stuff today and I just wanted to keep us in the game," Lauber said.

"The game settled down when (Lauber) came into pitch. He was throwing breaking balls for strikes and we didn't adjust very well to that," Cavanaugh said.

After Sycamore starter Mike Beaudoin worked six solid innings, Tyler Maveus issued four walks in the seventh, including a pair with the bases loaded. Ryan Knowlton added an RBI single, but Paddy McKermitt grounded out to end the game.

"We were a little nervous in the beginning, but I think we did a good job of bouncing back and keeping our composure," Lauber said.

Sycamore will face Rock Falls Wednesday in the Rochelle sectional.