Jackson Macdonald said he has complete faith in his defense to make plays behind him.

The way the Sycamore ace was dealing on Tuesday against Freeport in a 5-0 win, the defense didn’t have a lot of chances.

Macdonald struck out 14 in six innings, allowed two hits and walked one. Ben Anderson pitched the seventh to preserve the shutout as Sycamore (2-5) won for the second straight day.

“I just have so much faith in my guys,” Macdonald said. “They make it so easy to throw in the zone. I don’t have to worry about getting it down or them kicking it around or whatever. I can just lean on them, throw it in the zone, and good things will happen.”

The Spartans stranded runners in the first two innings but got on the board in the third. No. 9 hitter Jack Montani led the inning off with a single then stole second.

After two pop-ups to center field, it looked like he was going to be stranded in scoring position. But Macdonald, who struck out in his first at-bat, singled to left field, scoring Montani.

It was the only run Macdonald needed.

“It was a nothing-nothing ballgame at the time and I wanted to give myself a little cushion on the mound,” Macdonald said. “That first run is really important for us. It really helps us get the ball rolling.”

The Spartans added two more runs in the fourth without a hit off Freeport lefty starter Zach Gill. Anderson and Noah Neece each drew one-out walks, then Alex Van Mastrigt reached on an error to lead the bases.

After Montani struck out with the bases loaded for the second out, Gill uncorked wild pitches with Ryker Rissman at the plate, allowing Anderson and Neece to score.

“You’re going to have to get little breaks to win,” Sycamore coach Jason Cavanaugh said. “We had a strikeout with the bases loaded and one out, but we were fortunate enough to get two wild pitches there to score a couple runs.”

In the sixth, Anderson reached on an error and scored on an error that allowed Van Mastrigt to reach second with one out. He got to third on a single by Montani and scored on a single by Rissman, pushing the lead to 5-0.

The Spartans started the year 0-5, with each of those losses by one or two runs. They broke through Monday with a 6-5 win against Belvidere.

“We have a young team. We have two seniors on the team. We’re starting three sophomores,” Cavanaugh said. “We kind of know we’re going to take our lumps a little bit, have some growing pains here. But these guys are fun, they listen, they want to learn. ... I knew we weren’t going to be this bad for very long. We’re definitely going to be a team that’s going to be better at the end of the year than at the beginning.”

The Spartans head to St. Charles North on Thursday and Hampshire on Saturday before Interstate 8 play begins next week with a three-game series against Rochelle.

With conference play starting next week and two Class 4A teams on the schedule this week, Macdonald said the team’s confidence is growing.

“The confidence is definitely building with the guys here,” Macdonald said. “We’ve always been a fun team. Everyone here gets along really well. Everyone is friends on this team. It’s all about getting that confidence, winning a couple games to help us get there.”

Macdonald certainly has confidence in his defense. Cavanaugh said he’s generally liked how the defense has played this year, despite four errors in Monday’s win.

The Sycamore infield only had two make plays Tuesday, and Cavanaugh said both were great. In the third, shortstop Sawyer Valdez charged a slow roller to throw Lathan Beach out at first. In the seventh, after Anderson walked the first batter he faced, Tyren Coleman ripped a sharp grounder to Noah Neece at first.

Neece tagged the bag for the force, then threw out Ben Summers at second for the double play.

“When Jackson pitches, there aren’t many plays to be made,” Cavanaugh said. “Noah made a great play, Sawyer made a really great play, but other than that our defense really wasn’t forced to make any plays.”