Kaneland stuns top-seeded Burlington Central
The postseason can play funny tricks on a team.
The Burlington Central baseball team found that out all too well on Wednesday. The Rockets played stellar defense for most of the regular season on their way to capturing a fourth straight Big Northern East Conference title. However, 5 errors against Kaneland led to a 7-5 loss for the top-seeded Rockets in the Class 3A regional semifinals at Hampshire.
"That's how single elimination playoffs work sometimes," said Central coach Kyle Nelson. "Anything can happen. You don't have it one day and that's it. It's over just like that. Our defense has been a strength for us all year, but today it really let us down."
Kaneland advances to Saturday's championship game at noon against the winner of Thursday's semifinal between Hampshire and Sycamore.
Kaneland broke a 5-5 tie with two outs in the seventh inning when the Rockets dropped a flyball off the bat of Nicholas Stratman on the warning track, allowing Kaneland's Austin Wheatley to score the go-ahead run from third.
"The ball got caught up in the sun and he had a tough time with it," said Nelson. "But that one play is certainly not the reason we lost the game. We had any number of opportunities to make plays and score more runs and we just didn't do it."
Central sophomore Killian Vasica had tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the sixth inning with an RBI double that scored Andrew Lauber. Earlier in the game Vasica had tied the game at 4-4 with a 2-run homer in the fourth inning.
"He has really developed nicely," said Nelson. "He had a couple huge hits. Looking forward to what he can do the next couple of years.'
Kaneland (21-12) took advantage of 2 Central errors in the second inning to score 3 runs and grab a 3-1 lead. Jake Marczuk and Danny Hammermeister each had RBI singles. The Knights tacked on a run in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 4-1.
After the Rockets (24-9) tied it at 4-4 Wheatley led off the fifth inning with a double and scored on another Rockets error to put the Knights back on top 5-4.
Colton Fellows (7-2) battled the whole way on the mound for the Knights to pick up the win. He struck out 5 and walked 5.
"I'm glad we could have a senior like that on the mound," said Kaneland coach Brian Aversa. "He's been through it before and he knew how to handle the adversity."
The Knights only had 2 strikeouts in the game after not striking out at all in their opening round playoff win on Monday.
"We stress all the time putting the ball in play," said Aversa. "I am really pleased with the way we have done that. Right now we don't have a weak point in the lineup. We are confident with the way every batter 1 through 9 can handle the bat. We have a little momentum going now and hopefully we can keep it going."
Jonny Frederickson suffered the loss in relief for the Rockets.