Kaneland beats Batavia at Elfstrom
Bobby Thorson tossed another gem, and Kyle Davidson delivered the game-winning hit late. They are a pair of Kaneland seniors who celebrated Senior Night at Elfstrom Stadium in style Thursday in a 3-1 win over Batavia.
And yet baseball was the last thing that mattered to Knights coach Brian Aversa or many others in the crowd.
The Kaneland and Batavia communities turned out in great numbers to support the Helm family. Daniel Helm is a freshman at Kaneland, and his 4-year-old brother David is battling Leukemia.
David Helm, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia this winter, threw out the first pitch. All the money raised Thursday will go to the Helm family.
“The crowd was great, the seniors were great, Cougars were great and Batavia was great too,” Aversa said. “I know we played a game tonight but the most important thing was we helped a family out that was in need. They were so thankful. Honestly I didn’t even care about the game, I wanted to help the Helms out as much as we could. It was an amazing night.”
Batavia coach Matt Holm echoed that sentiment. Holm knows Aversa well from plenty of hard-fought conference races through the years, and the two are friends.
“For this opportunity to come in when we could play each other on a night like tonight with both communities and make it worth something for somebody — not just the experience of being here — that makes it all real special,” Holm said.
Following a sophomore game, Batavia (13-16) and Kaneland (17-10) both honored its seniors in the pregame.
Once the varsity game got under way, Thorson and Batavia starter Ben Allison made it a quick night for everyone. Thorson allowed just 3 hits, 0 walks and struck out five in what he called the second best game he’s pitched this year behind a 2-hitter against Yorkville.
“I felt good on the mound,” Thorson said. “I got them to hit a lot of weak groundballs.”
Batavia scored its only run in the fifth when Kaneland center fielder Joe Camiliere lost Danny Seiton’s fly ball in the lights, a play that went for a run-scoring double.
Camiliere and right fielder Jake Razo collided on the next play, a screamer to the right field cap by Braden Hrack. Razo held onto the ball for the third out, the only time Hrack was retired. Hrack had Batavia’s only 2 hits besides Seiton’s double.
Tied 1-1, the Knights didn’t let that play bother them. Allison retired the first two batters in the sixth but after an error he gave way to Steve Patterson.
A single by Brian Dixon and a walk to Trever Heinle loaded the bases for Davidson, whose smash to short took a bad hop and bounced over Seiton’s head to score 2 runs and put Kaneland ahead 3-1.
“It shows the character of our team even when things aren’t going exactly our way all the time that we are able to come back and finish the game strong,” Thorson said.
Davidson made up for two strikeouts in previous at-bats with his game-winner.
“I like being up in those situations,” Davidson said. “I’m a good hitter, I knew coming up in the right mindset I had to get a hit and get those RBI and get a win.”
Thorson set the Bulldogs down in order in the seventh to end the game. He retired the final 7 hitters he faced.
“It was a blast,” Thorson said. “I had a lot of fun tonight. I loved the energy. I was getting ancy all day, everyone on the team was. It was a great day.”