Fox Valley baseball notes: Elgin's Coates continues to develop
Elgin pitcher Kyle Coates dodged trouble throughout Wednesday's Upstate Eight River home game against Batavia.
The junior right-hander didn't get much help from a defense that committed 6 errors in an eventual 6-0 defeat. Still, he gave Elgin (2-8, 0-3) a chance to win by minimizing the damage via a career-best 10 strikeouts, which kept it a 1-0 game until the top of the seventh.
Batavia (6-2, 3-0) scored an unearned run off Coates in the first inning and threatened for more in the third when Elgin infielders couldn't handle consecutive two-out groundballs.
The miscues didn't rattle Coates, a second-year varsity starter who as a sophomore posted a team-best 2.25 earned-run average in 49 innings with 35 strikeouts and 14 walks. He induced a third straight groundball, this time to second baseman Eric Damerow, who threw to first to end the threat.
Coates escaped more trouble in the fifth, when Jack Haefer reached on a one-out error, stole second and advanced to third base on a fly out to right field. Coates used a curveball that broke down and away from a right-handed hitter to notch a swinging strikeout and keep it a 1-run game.
"I just tried to throw it full arm speed. I worked on it all off-season," said Coates, who pitches for the Schaumburg Seminoles in the summer. "That was actually one of my problems last year: getting to two strikes and not getting the strikeout. My main focus this year was to develop my off speed, so it was nice to see it pay off a little bit. It shows that the training is working. It was good to see."
Coates opened the season on March 14 by throwing a 5-inning no hitter against Marengo. He struck out 9 and walked 2 in the 10-0 win.
He started with a three-quarters sidearm delivery as a freshman, but the arm slot drops with each successive season.
"I called myself three quarters freshman year but I think we're getting down to sidearm," he said. "We're getting there. It's just a matter of time. I might as well just call it now. Getting in that lower arm slot, I was actually able to work on a sinker so it was helping me to get some more movement on my pitches. Keeping the velocity up from that arm slot was the main concern, but, obviously, it's going well."
Thing of beauty: Huntley's Kyle Morgan throws one of the prettiest curveballs around.
The 6-foot-3, 180-pound left-hander committed to McHenry County College kept Dundee-Crown batters guessing in the middle game of a Fox Valley Conference series by attacking with a variety of curves.
The senior held the Chargers to 1 hit over 5 innings and struck out 9 without issuing a walk.
Morgan is already 4-0 in 4 starts for the Red Raiders (11-1). Last season he finished 4-2 in 9 starts. He has 34 strikeouts and 4 walks in 20 innings and owns a 0.35 ERA, thanks, in part, to his curveball.
"If I feel like I can really command it, it will really set up my fastball," the 2017 all-area selectee said. "It sets up all four of my pitches, really. I think if I command it and throw it for strikes and use it as a weapon with two strikes, I feel I can be really effective."
Morgan used a looping, backdoor curve to catch the outside edge of the plate against a right-handed hitter for a called strike to end the second inning.
"If I try to sweep it, I'll throw it a little harder," he said. "But if I want to go more 12-6, sometimes I'll kind of loop it up there, change the speed and get the hitters off balance more and set up another pitch. I use it different speeds in different counts. It's all about the arm angle."
The great outdoors: Thanks to a brief respite from a chilly spring weather pattern, most area teams were able to play on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It marked the first time this season most teams were able to play games on three consecutive days.
Though playing outside in Tuesday's 42-degree weather was a character builder, it beat another day of practice in the school gymnasium.
"You get bored inside," Batavia coach Alex Beckmann said. "Sometimes it's hard to keep morale up. There's only so much you can do. Hopefully, this weather is turning and we can get outside every day."