PREP BASEBALL: SYCAMORE5,OTTAWA0 EthanStorm,Sycamoreblank Ottawa to stay atop Interstate 8

By BRIAN HOXSEY bhoxsey@shawmedia.com

OTTAWA –Sycamore pitcher Ethan Storm shrugged his shoulders in abit of frustration afterathird straight fastball sailed high, allowing an Ottawa base runner to reach with a walk in the second inning.

However, that trio of pitches was just abliponthe radar of how the rest of Wednesday’s Interstate 8Conference contest against the Pirates went for the hard-throwingright-hander.

Storm finishedthe complete-game effort, allowing only four hits and that one walk while striking out12tohelp theSpartans (16-5, 10-2 I-8) keep hold of aone-game lead in the leaguestandings over La Salle-Peru with a5-0 victory at King Field.

“I felt like both my fastball and offspeedpitches wereworkingwell together,” said Storm, who threw65of his 98 pitches for strikes. “I had acouple of timestoday where my fastball wasrunning high, butIknew Icould come back to my curveballand it was going to be there. For most of the season, my fastball has been solid, and I’ve been able to locate it very well, but todayIfelt Ihad the same command with curve.

“[The conferencerace] has been a focus of ours,ofcourse, but we also knowwehave to take care of what we havecontrol of. We have to treat everything the same,because anything can happen.”

“That’s what we’ve come to expect

Prep Roundup

Ethan Storm, Sycamore pitcher from Ethan. Ifeel bad for saying that, but he does all the things we ask of him,” Sycamore coachJason Cavanaugh said.“He fields his position, he throws strikes and does not walk hitters. He pitched areally solid game for us today,and our defensebehind him was about as solid as it gets.”

Sycamore backed Storm with some timely hitting, starting in the top of the first when Tommy Townsend singled with two outs off Ottawa starting and losing pitcher Rylan Dorsey(6IP, 4H, 1ER, 2BB, 3K)and scoredwhen Jimmy Amptmann followed with a two-strike, ringing double to right-center.

The visitors were held in check by Dorsey until the sixth. Townsend, who finished 3for 3, walked, moved to second on aPirateserror and scored when asacrifice bunt by JoeyPuleo was thrown away. Storm helped himself with asacrifice fly to score Amptmann beforeByron Blaise lined atwoout, opposite-field single to make it 4-0.

“I don’t think we as agroup swung thebatsexceptionally well today with too many easy outs,too many weak fly balls to the opposite field,”Cavanaugh said. “But we did come up with some timely hits when we needed them, especially in the sixth inning when we were able to add on.”

Sycamore added arun in theseventh off Pirates reliever Justus Mason, as Kiefer Tarnoki poked aleadoff single, moved to second on agroundout, to thirdonawildpitch and scored on an RBI base hit by Townsend.

Storm, whodidn’t allow an Ottawa runnertoreach third,allowed hits by Dorsey and Payton Knoll withtwo outs in the seventh but closedthe game by inducing aground balltothird.

“I thought for the most part Rylan commanded the strike zone and really did agood job of mixing up his pitches,” said Ottawa coach Tyler Wargo, his team now12-8 and 6-6. “He did agreat job and really kept us in the game. Of thethree phasesofthe game, Ifeel our pitching hasbeenabove average this season, it’s justwe are lacking in the othertwo areas right now. We’llget that cleaned up and keep working to get better.

“When you only get ahandful of base runnersinagame,you have to capitalize any chance you can get. We are ateam that has to string hits togethertoscore runs for the most part, and against akid like Storm, that’sgoing to be atough.

“We just weren’t able to gettohim today.”

Ottawa is scheduled to travel to play Mendota on Thursday, whileSycamore hosts Genoa-Kingston on Friday.

Kaneland softball team nips Ottawa with late rally

Shaw Local News Network

Abby Latka singled home the eventualwinning runinthe top of the seventh inning Wednesday in athrilling 4-3 win for Kaneland overhost Ottawa.

The Knights finally caught the Pirates with athree-run fifth inning to knotthe Interstate8 Conference game at 3. The big hitcamefrom EmilyOlp. Her double brought the game even for Kaneland (8-4, 5-0). Grace Algrim struck out 11 in the complete-game effortfor theKnights.

GIRLS SOCCER Morris 2, Indian Creek 1: At Shabonna,

Emma Turner scoredinthe 58th minute for IndianCreek in the nonconference contest. The Timberwolves fell to 6-6-1 on the season.

Kaneland 9, Hinckley-Big Rock 1: At Hinckley, the Knights (13-3-1) scored five times in the first half in the nonconference contest to defeat the Royals (7-3)

Baseball

Kaneland 13, Sandwich 3(6inn.): At Maple Park,arun or more in every inning lifted the Knights in the Interstate 8contest. ParkerViolett drove in a pair for Kaneland (13-7,8-4). Junior Luke Wituk struck out two in four inningsofwork.

Naperville 6, DeKalb 3: At DeKalb, the teamscombined to score all nine runs in the sixth inning of the DuPage Valley Conference game. Senior Jack Keck had three hits,including two doubles, and drove in arun for DeKalb (4-17, 1-11). BrysonBuhk and Maddux Clarence also drove in runs for the Barbs.

Boys Tennis

Rockford Lutheran 3, Kaneland 2: At Maple Park,Caleb Hwang andVaughn Bladwon at No. 2doubles, and Sam Regelbruggeand Matt Manugas took No. 3doubles for the Knights in the nonconference dual meet.