ROCKTON—The Hononegah boys baseball team had allowed Belvidere to claw its way back into Wednesday afternoon’s NIC-10 showdown by committing a slew of errors across the fourth and fifth inning.
The Indians then gave themselves some breathing room by taking advantage of some Bucs’ miscues and surged ahead for the 7-3 win at Weber Field.
“We weren't real sharp defensively,” head coach Matt Simpson said. “But the last two games had probably been our best defensive games. We’re slowly getting there. We're way better than we were two weeks ago, and we just need to continue making strides so we're ready to go in May.”
Senior center fielder Landen Seymour echoed that sentiment.
“We’re starting to come together,” he said. “We played good Monday (a 10-win at Belvidere), pretty clean, no errors, no allowed hits. Today we took a step back. But we're hitting the ball pretty well, so we can go pick up from now.”
The Bucs (2-7-1, 0-2) had cut Hononegah’s lead to 3-2 in the fourth after Gio Urbietta reached all the way to second on an error by shortstop Jakob DeLeo and scored on a ground out by Nathan Steurer.
The Indians (6-3-1, 2-0 NIC-10) upped it to 4-2 but Chris Medina drew a 2-out walk, moved to second on a single and reached home when pitcher Alexander Skrade overthrew a pickoff attempt.
“The good news is if you can learn from mistakes and you’re winning games, that's a really good thing,” Simpson said. “We didn't do that over spring break. We made mistakes and got some losses hung on us.”
The Indians wouldn’t let that happen Wednesday. DeLeo laid down a bunt single to start the bottom of the fifth before Evan Sayles laid down a sac bunt and was out at first, but DeLeo gunned for third. The first baseman threw the ball away, allowing the senior to score.
It was a bit of redemption night for DeLeo, who committed three errors at shortstop but went 3-for-3 with a run and RBI.
“Jakob keeps his head straight,” Seymour said. “(Making an error) on a ground ball, he's obviously frustrated right away. But he picks himself up right after.”
DeLeo also shook off an error in the sixth when he was called to pitch in relief of Skrade right after. With two outs and runners on first and second he got Wesley Cortez to strike out. He allowed a walk and single with one out in the seventh but got a strikeout and ground out to slam the door on the win.
“Jakob is a good shortstop, a great arm out of our bullpen and a really good hitter as well. He struggled at times this year. He gets himself in trouble sometimes by sitting back a little bit too much on ground balls, and we're working on it. But once he takes the mound, he's focused and I know he is going to come in and pound the strike zone and make teams hit the ball to beat us.”
Skrade was strong in 5 2-3 innings from the mound. He allowed three hits and three runs, none earned, with a walk and four strikeouts.
“AJ is more of a contact pitcher,” Simpson said. “He's not going to go up and blow the ball by anybody, but he commanded his two pitches pretty well for strikes. He's confident and knows that he's going to get weak contact.”
Hononegah had built a 3-0 lead in the first as Nicholas Santis and DeLeo drew bases-loaded walks and Sayles smacked an RBI fielder’s choice.
Austin Dresser made it 4-2 in the fourth with his run-scoring single and Seymour contributed a one-run single in the fifth. Bryce Ewing made it 7-3 in the sixth with his sacrifice fly.
Leadoff hitter Seymour went 3-for-4 with two runs while Dresser, behind him in the two spot, had three hits in the Indians 12-hit performance.
“We have a lot of depth one through nine,” Seymour said. “We have very aggressive hitters. Everyone's able to do the same thing, put the ball in play and advance runners.”
Hononegah next faces Rockford Jefferson at home at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
• LINESCORE:
HONONEGAH 7, BELVIDERE 3
BLVD 000 210 — 3 4 3
Hono 300 121 — 7 12 5
Leading hitters: Belvidere, Williams 2x4, Stark 1x4, 1 Run, Steurer 1x3, 1 RBI. Hono, Seymour 3x5, 2 Runs, 1 RBI; Dresser 3x4, 1 Run, 1 RBI; Stewart 1x1, 1 Run, DeLeo 3x3, 1 Run, 1 RBI, Broege 1x2, Saules 1x3, 1 RBI, Edward 0x2, 1 Run.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Belvidere, Urbietta 5.0-10-7-7-5-2; Medina 1.0-2-0-0-0-1. Hono, Skrade 5.2-3-3-0-1-4, DeLeo 1.1-1-0-0-1-2.
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