Kaneland High honors a fallen son in pre-game ceremony

The sun made an appearance in Maple Park only moments after the Kaneland baseball team honored a fallen son.

"It didn't feel whole out there today," Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said. "We felt like we were missing something."

After a pre-game ceremony in which the Knights retired the No. 41 jersey of Jeff Malewig, Kaneland put on a near-flawless performance against visiting Burlington Central Thursday afternoon.

Jeff Smith and Steve Colombe combined on a 3-hit shutout as the Knights opened the season with a 6-0 victory over the Rockets.

Malewig and fellow senior Blake Denton were killed in car accident last December while on the way to school.

Malewig would have been the starting second baseman for the Knights this spring, and one of many tributes to his memory was the team vacating his position in the top of the first inning.

"That was a real classy thing they did," Burlington coach Kyle Nelson said. "Brian told us before the game to go out and play baseball. Obviously we weren't going to take advantage of (the Knights playing without a second baseman)."

"There were no putouts by 4 (the second baseman in baseball scorekeeping) today," Aversa said.

Jake Fiedler had the unenviable task of replacing Malewig at second base, and the junior appropriately capped the Rockets' 1-2-3 inning by catching a short fly ball in right field playing as a fourth outfielder.

Fiedler later iced the Knights' season-opening win with a 2-run double in the fifth inning.

"It didn't feel right without (Malewig)," Fiedler said. "I wasn't sure if I was going to get to start. It was a great honor for me to play second."

Fiedler had a diving stab to highlight the Knights' error-free defense.

Kaneland placed the classmates' initials on the foul poles down both lines as part of the ceremony, and the Knights' student body came out in force, ringing the first-base and right-field fence from end to end.

"We had the biggest crowd ever for a baseball game," said Smith, the Knights' southpaw starter whose no-hit bid ended on fourth-inning wind-blown double. "I definitely had some butterflies (taking the mound). The motivation for winning this first game was pretty big."

"(The players) knew that Jeff was looking down on us," senior leadoff batter Jay Levita said. "They knew they had to get that win."

Senior Joe Gura provided Smith and the Knights all the offense they would need with a run-scoring double in the third inning.

"We played with a lot of emotion," Aversa said. "(Malewig) completed a big part of us."

The events were certainly not lost on the Malewig family.

"Everything the community has done has been excellent," said Tom Malewig, whose other son Scott is a student and athlete at Aurora University. "The people here are so personable. All these kids loved Scott. The crowd today was an example of that."

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