The Sycamore baseball team decided to walk DeKalb No. 2 hitter Cole Latimer with one out and a runner on second in a tie game in the bottom of the sixth.

Evan Johnson made the Spartans pay. Then Hunter Kriese made them pay. Then Mason Weber made them pay. Then Benny Probst made them pay.

Johnson’s single sparked a six-run rally to break the game open, beating their next door rivals 12-8 on Saturday.

“I love that clutch factor,” said Johnson, who laced a single to right field to score Caden Smith and put DeKalb ahead 7-6. “I feel like with me, when put in a clutch situation I’m going to do my job. I just think it was a mistake they did that and I knew it was going to be the outcome.”

Kriese followed with a single that brought home Latimer. Breydon Martin, who had a two-run double in the fourth, reached on an error that scored two runs for DeKalb (12-8-1).

Weber hit a sacrifice fly that brought home Aaron Rhodes, then Benny Probst doubled home Martin to push the lead to 12-6.

DeKalb coach Josh Latimer said he was expecting the intentional walk to Cole Latimer coming and liked the way Johnson stepped up.

“I was hoping they put it into Evan’s hands,” Josh Latimer said. “Evan came up big against Naperville Central and he came up big against today. I love they kind of put that pressure on him. I think he’s starting to like that pressure.”

Weber came into pitch in the bottom of the sixth, closing the door on a Spartans rally after they tied the game. He inherited two on with one out but struck out the first two he faced to escape the jam.

The Spartans (9-9) rallied in the seventh, mostly thanks to a shaky Barbs defense. Adam Eder opened the seventh with a walk, then back-to-back errors led to a run. Noah Neece drew a two-out walk with the bases loaded to cut the lead to 12-8.

Ben Anderson came to the plate as the potential tying run, but Weber induced a groundout to first to end the game.

Both teams played sloppy baseball, with nine total errors on a chilly, windy Saturday morning.

“It was a bad baseball game all the way around,” Sycamore coach Jason Cavanaugh said. “This was a tough game for us because we’re coming off an emotional series and we played last night. And this is always a tough game to play.”

The Spartans took two out of three this week from conference rival Kaneland, but lost 5-4 to the Knights on Friday.

The Spartans committed four errors, leading to six unearned runs, including two of the six runs Connor Busch gave up in the sixth. Starter Lucas Dyer allowed two runs, one earned, while striking out one and walking two.

“Lucas pitched well today, he did. He gave up two runs in the fourth inning, but it was all soft contact,” Cavanaugh said. “There was nothing hard about that I just felt like we were in a situation where we needed to try a different pitcher.”

Ben Anderson and Alex Van Mastrigt each singled and scored in the second to start the scoring, then the Spartans went up 2-0. Sawyer Valdez’s sacrifice fly brought home Anderson in the fourth for a 3-0 lead.

Anderson and Van Mastrigt each had three of Sycamore’s 11 hits. Anderson and Valdez scored twice each. Valdez drove in a pair of runs.

The Barbs had been struggling offensively entering Saturday despite taking two of three from Naperville Central. They were no-hit Friday in an 8-0 loss. They were also no-hit the game before, but won that game 1-0. In the series opener on Tuesday they were shut out for six innings before winning in extras 4-3.

The bats started coming around in the fourth, starting with Martin’s two-run double. They scored four more in the fifth, two on a double by Kriese.

Kriese, Probst and Gavin Cheney had two hits each. Smith and Kriese scored twice each and Johnson scored three times.

“The boys have to believe,” Josh Latimer said. “The boys have to want the moment. There have been a couple times this year we haven’t wanted the moment. Of course they want the moment today because it’s Sycamore. But we have to have that same intensity come Monday with Neuqua Valley.”

With a three-game series against Neuqua Valley coming up, Johnson said he feels like Saturday’s 10-hit performance can help the Barbs turn a corner.

“We were in a little rough stretch but now this game happened, we’re going into Neuqua knowing we have a chance to bring ourselves up in the conference,” Johnson said. “I think it’s going to light a fire under us. We’re going to be able to compete and win these games.”