Baseball: Kaleb Helgesen comes through for Indian Creek against IMSA in spot start

Indian Creek's Kalab Helgesen throws a pitch during their game against IMSA Monday, May 9, 2022, in Shabbona.

SHABBONA – Indian Creek’s Kaleb Helgesen came up big for his team during a 12-2 win over IMSA in five innings Monday.

With five games this week, the Timberwolves needed someone to eat some innings, so Helgesen, a senior, got the spot start against a Little Ten Conference opponent.

“It feels good,” Helgesen said. “I haven’t pitched since freshman year, so I just did what I could.”

Helgesen’s performance was up and down, but he got Indian Creek out of tough spots all game. He finished with five strikeouts in four innings. He allowed only two runs despite walking two batters, hitting two others, and giving up five hits.

“When I hit somebody, it makes me feel a little bit down, but everybody around here brings such good energy that it brings me back up,” Helgesen said. “Then I feel fine, and I hit my spots.”

After allowing one run in the top of the first inning, the Timberwolves responded with seven runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back.

The first seven batters for Indian Creek (7-12, 5-7 LTC) reached base before the Titans (2-11, 2-10) got an out.

“Getting back-to-back wins is always good,” said Timberwolves coach Kevin Poterek, whose team took down Hinckley-Big Rock, 11-5, on Saturday. “It looks like we carried some momentum. We got the bats going early. That is big for us. Sometimes we have games that are up and down with the hitting, but we got the hitting going early and good contact.”

After a leadoff walk to Sam Genslinger, Tyler Bogle and Jeffrey Probst each smashed RBI doubles to get the Timberwolves on the board.

After Nik Nelson drew a walk, Helgesen helped his own cause with a two-run single. He later scored on an error.

Genslinger knocked in another run on his second at-bat of the inning to give the Timberwolves a 7-1 lead.

The Titans kept the pressure on the Timberwolves, getting runners on base in every inning, but couldn’t push the runs across the plate.

“That’s been a problem all year,” Titans coach Thomas Polka said. “We just can’t push it that extra little bit. We’ve been working on it, but it’s just not coming around in the games.”

The Timberwolves added another run in the second on a groundout by Drake Mickler.

They struck again in the fourth inning, plating three runs with three straight singles to open the inning by Bogle, Probst and Nelson. All three scored to push the lead to 11-2.

Indian Creek closed the game with Genslinger reaching on an error and then coming all the way around to score on three wild pitches.

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