Baseball: Vaca's return closes out Streamwood

Bartlett senior Mike Vaca made a triumphant return to the pitching mound in a 6-4 Upstate Eight win at Streamwood Friday.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder dominated the seventh inning in relief of Danny Cahill, who relieved winning pitcher Geno Frieri (2-0) after five strong innings.

It was Vaca's varsity pitching debut and the possibility of it had him "through the roof" with anticipation during the school day, he said. He had not pitched in a spring game in two seasons due to a fractured arm suffered in a travel-league game in summer 2018.

Vaca threw a couple of innings for the Hawks last summer but experienced control problems, he said. A winter's worth of bullpens had hopefully fixed the issue.

Cut to Friday when his first two pitches in a 2-run game on a windy, 47-degree day were called balls. Vaca took a deep breath of cold April air, worked the count full and notched his first varsity strikeout looking.

He then proceeded to strike out the side with cheese that touched a new personal-best 88 mph, according to a radar gun pointed his way.

"I'm pretty stoked about that," Vaca said. "I felt good. I just went out and tried to throw strikes. It's crazy and exciting, really, just being on the mound because I love pitching."

The win halted a 3-game slide for Bartlett (5-3-1, 4-3), which grabbed the lead for good on a Blake Oliver's 2-run, fourth-inning home run to left.

"I think I missed a little bit of it but I still barreled it up," Oliver said of his second home run this season. "It was a good curve. I just saw it. I was able to recognize it."

The Hawks extended the lead to 4-1 in the fifth inning. Nate Euliano tripled to drive in Nick Kantzavelos, who drew a leadoff walk. That theme haunted Streamwood (5-7, 3-4). The Sabres walked six batters, four of which scored.

"The walks killed us," Streamwood coach Ryan Lasota said. "It took us 140-something pitches to get through a seven-inning game. Six walks and we had 6 hits going into the sixth. It's never good to have the same amount of walks as we do hits."

Connor Johnson pulled the Sabres within 4-3 with a two-out, 2-run, fifth-inning single. "I was thinking right side and I took it up the middle, which was perfect," Johnson said.

Bartlett added insurance. Frieri singled to drive in a sixth-inning run. Vaca's one-out, seventh-inning groundball scored Euliano after his second triple.

The offense, bullpen and a Bartlett defense that committed a lone error made a winner of Frieri. He allowed 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits and 3 walks and struck out 6 in 5 innings.

"I had a mental mindset of throwing strikes and hitting my spots. I trusted my defense and with the wind, we made all the plays."

Max Alanis, Dylan Caruso and Tyler Jones each had 2 hits for the Sabres.

The 3-game series resumes Saturday with Game 2 in Bartlett at 10 a.m.