Kaneland 7, Sycamore 4

With a week to go, the Western Sun Conference baseball race is tightening up.

Kaneland got a much-needed win for itself Thursday, a victory that also helped Geneva's chances for a repeat championship.

The Knights defeated Sycamore 7-4. Coupled with Geneva's 7-1 win over DeKalb, the Vikings head into next week's 3-game series with the Spartans trailing by 1 game in the loss column.

Kaneland (13-9, 10-8) snapped a 4-game losing streak, including 10-2 and 13-5 losses to Sycamore the past two days that likely ended the Knights hopes of capturing the crown.

"We had to salvage something and get some momentum going into the last series," Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said. "That was a good win against a good team."

Third baseman Mike Pritchard drove in 4 runs with a first inning double, a third in sacrifice fly and a 2-run single in the fourth.

"I was just looking for a fastball," Pritchard said. "I just tried to get a good swing on it. We had not been playing good defense but today we played really good D and the bats were working today too."

"Mike has been playing well both offensively and defensively," Aversa said. "He's doing a great job."

The Spartans started Kyle Landes (3-3). He walked Jody Henningson to start the game and hit the next batter. The Knights scored 2 runs in the first inning and never trailed, capitalizing on 4 Sycamore errors while making none of their own.

"He got himself in trouble all day," Sycamore coach Jason Cavanaugh said. "He pitched behind all the time. You are in immediate trouble when that happens. And we didn't do much to help him out defensively."

Cody Crook (2-1) picked up the win. He led 7-1 before running into trouble in the sixth.

The Spartans scored twice and had the bases loaded. No. 9 hitter Eric Ray hit a shot that looked headed for a 2-run single, but it hit a base runner to stall the rally.

"Cody did what he needed to do to get the win," Aversa said. "He got out of some jams. We caught a couple breaks today. We kept chipping away today."

Austin Park worked out of another jam in the seventh to pick up his fourth save. Catcher Brian Claesson went 2-for-4 with 2 runs.

"Kaneland is too good of a team to roll over," Cavanaugh said. "We had our opportunities today. Bad break here and there. We had our chances."

Sycamore (16-9, 13-5) also was in first place heading into the last series of the year last season. Geneva (18-6, 11-6) swept the series to win its first conference title.

"We were playing our worst baseball of the season," Cavanaugh said. "We started off really hot and kind of got worse as the season went on.

"This year I think we are playing better baseball. We've got the No. 1 guy (Illinois-bound Will Strack), we've got the best pitcher in the conference."

Cavanaugh said Strack, 7-1, likely will pitch Tuesday's opener in Sycamore.

The Vikings also still have a game to finish against Rochelle.

At 11-7 Glenbard South still also has a chance if the Raiders can sweep Rochelle next week and Geneva wins at least two from Sycamore. But Batavia played the spoiler role this week by taking two of three from the Raiders.

Mary Beth Nolan/mnolan@dailyherald.com

Kaneland's Cody Crook improved to 2-1 by defeating Sycamore Thursday in Maple Park.