Baseball: Butt’s strong stint in relief keys Libertyville’s win over Lake Zurich
Fifteen warmup pitches.
That’s all it took for Libertyville junior Kaden Butt to get ready when coach Matt Thompson needed him in the bottom of the first.
“Coach asked who was ready and I told him I’ll go get ready fast,” Butt said. “I just threw 15 pitches in the bullpen and just got loose.”
Butt entered with the bases loaded and just one out. He got a fly out and then a strikeout on his way to shutting down Lake Zurich over the next five innings as Libertyville rallied for a 5-2 win Tuesday in Libertyville.
Butt gave up just two scattered hits and walked one over his 5 2/3 innings. He also got solid defense behind him including plays by outfielders Matthew Hara, Aksel McKnight and Carson Holmes, who all battled the winds to make solid catches.
“I just thought as I came in let’s just get through the first inning there,” said Butt, who is a junior and has only thrown a couple of innings before Tuesday.
“I came out in the second and told myself just to do good there. This was my first big outing and I came through it well and I feel pretty good. We all face adversity. You just have to fight through it and make it work.”
Thompson said he was impressed with Butt’s performance.
“I asked who can get ready fast and he had his hand up fast, “ Thompson said. “I was happy for him. He showed a lot out there. We can trust that he can come in here in relief and throw strikes for us.”
Libertyville (9-4-1, 3-1), which is the defending 4A state champion, unveiled its new state banner Tuesday.
The Wildcats beat Lake Zurich 4-2 on Monday and posted their 8th win in a row over Lake Zurich Tuesday in the last three years. It also kept Libertyville just one game behind Mundelein in the North Suburban, with the two teams meeting next Monday and Tuesday,
Lake Zurich (7-4, 2-2) was the home team at Libertyville because their field was unplayable due to the rains early Tuesday. It was their second home game in a row that the Bears were forced to play on the road due to unplayable conditions at their home field.
Despite that, Lake Zurich took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
The Bears loaded the bases to begin their first at-bat when Carson Hamblin walked, Nick Auden was hit by a pitch and Colin Chung walked. Hamblin would score on a wild pitch and then after a walk to Reid Pfeifer, courtesy runner Rylan Lamp scored on Cooper Kaczmarek’s sacrifice fly.
Libertyville would rally for four runs in its next at-bat thanks to some timely hitting, a pair of misplayed fly balls by the Bears thanks to the winds and a pair of fielding miscues by Lake Zurich.
Weston Wyzukovicz walked and went to third on McKnight’s single to right. Wyzukoovicz scored on Chase Lockwood’s single. Madden Cotts would then get a two-out wind-blown single to drive in a pair of runs.
“It’s just knowing the situation,” said Cotts, who is a junior and had two hits on the day. “I just wanted to make sure that I put the ball in play.”
Cotts would then steal second and score when Hara reached on an infield error.
Libertyville added an insurance run in the sixth when Bode Rohrbach doubled to right and scored on Hara’s second hit of the game.
“Defensively, we have some things to clean up,” Lake Zurich coach Derek Parola said. “I hope our guys understand that we are not playing our best baseball right now. But we were still able to compete with one of the best teams in the state. We will keep improving and hopefully, we will be in a different spot.”