Baseball: Clements, McHenry shut out Crystal Lake South in FVC

No one from McHenry’s baseball team retrieved the ball that Landon Clements jacked over the fence in right field for his first varsity home run.

Clements didn’t seem to care.

“It’s obviously cool to hit a bomb,” Clements said. “But you still just got to play the game.”

Never too high, never too low. Clements’ attitude — and skill set — helps explain why he is being recruited to play NCAA Division-I ball. The junior, who hit .333 with 20 stolen bases in helping the Warriors finish in second in the state in Class 4A last spring, went 2 for 3 with two RBI and two runs scored Monday in helping McHenry beat host Crystal Lake South 5-0 in a Fox Valley Conference showdown.

The win completed a sweep for the Warriors (10-2-1, 4-0 FVC), who edged Crystal Lake South (7-4, 1-3) by a 3-2 final Friday.

“It’s hard to sweep teams, no matter who it is in this conference,” said McHenry starting pitcher Kaden Wasniewski, who pitched two-hit ball over six innings in earning the win.

Like Clements, who committed to the University of Illinois-Chicago in the offseason, Wasniewski played long ball. The junior’s two-run homer off reliever Nick Stowasser capped a three-run fifth inning that hiked the visitors’ lead to 4-0.

Bennet Baumann’s fourth-inning sacrifice fly gave Wasniewski the only run he needed. Clements made it 2-0 with a out-one, RBI single in the fifth.

Clements, who reached base in the third when he got hit on the ankle, pulled a Stowasser pitch over the fence in right with one out and none on in the seventh.

Mind you, Clements led off the game by getting called out on strikes.

“He didn’t look very good,” McHenry coach Brian Rockweiler said of Clements’ first plate appearance. “I think he did a great job of coming back after that at-bat. It just shows his maturity, not letting that one at-bat affect anything.”

That’s what bodes well for Clements. Homers are a bonus. Strikeouts are not to be lamented.

“You got to flush that (first at-bat), get to your next AB,” Clements said.

Crystal Lake South senior Julian Redmond said he found out during eighth period that he would be starting on the mound. Matt Bychowsky was scheduled to be the Gators’ starting pitcher but tweaked his back.

“I was like, ‘OK, let’s go,’ ” Redmond said after making his first start of the season. “Then I came outside, got a good hour in, warmed up and got ready. … It’s not really that big of deal (starting at the last-minute). I’m a P.O. (pitcher only). I got to be ready to pitch whenever I got to be ready to pitch.”

Redmond, a righty who will pitch for Oakton College next year, used a nasty slider to help limit McHenry to one hit — an infield single by Wasniewski — in four innings of work.

He struck out five, walked one and hit two batters.

“I just came in and did what I needed to do,” said Redmond, who pitched the final inning against Grayslake Central on Saturday.

Wasniewski threw 50 of his 81 pitches for strikes. The hard-throwing Louisiana State commit struck out five and walked two. Nathan Niedhardt pitched a perfect seventh for the Warriors.

“I just try to pitch to contact,” Wasniewski said. “I got great defense out there.”

Wasniewski’s fifth-inning homer with Clements aboard gave himself some breathing room. He hit a Stowasser fastball up in the zone on a 2-2 count over the fence in left-center field.

“I was expecting him to come challenge me,” Wasniewski said. “I just had to wait on it and get my pitch.”

McHenry’s six hits also included a double by Garet Lobbins and a single by Carter Thornton. The defending FVC champions played errorless ball and successfully executed three sacrifices.

“You just got to bring your best stuff every day. Show what you can do out there,” Clements said of sweeping Crystal Lake South, after the Warriors swept Dundee-Crown last week.

Illinois commit Carson Trivellini and Wes Bogda had Crystal Lake South’s only hits.

“They were better than us,” Gators coach Brian Bogda said of the Warriors. “(Wasniewski) pitched his tail off and kept us off balance. There’s a reason he’s going to LSU, and he showed it today.”