Kankakee baseball’s upset bid of Morris comes up a run shy in regionals: Wednesday’s Daily Journal roundup

Baseball

Class 3A Morris Regional semifinals

(1)Morris 1, (8)Kankakee 0: The Kays saw their season end with a 10-22 record Wednesday, but not before causing quite a panic for state title contender Morris.

Seeded eighth in their eight-team sub-sectional, the Kays traveled to top-seeded Morris and saw Jacob Vinardi and Byron Wills pitch perhaps their best games of the season in front of what Kankakee head coach Nick Crowe said was the team’s best performance of the season, despite coming up a run shy against Morris ace Jack Wheeler.

“I’m super proud of our guys,” Crowe said. “We put it together in the biggest game of the year. Our guys competed so well and it was nice for them to see that they’re capable of it. The whole year we knew we were capable of it, and we were right there with a top five team in the state.”

The lone run of the game came in the bottom of the first, when Ximi Baftiri reached base on an error, took second on a passed ball, third on a Brett Bounds’ single and home on another passed ball.

Junior southpaw Jacob Vinardi allowed an unearned run on two hits and a walk in three innings. Byron Wills walked one and struck out a pair in three no-hit innings. Parker Zubrys and Alexander Grill each had hits against Wheeler, an Illinois commit who fanned 15 in a shutout effort.

“If you ask my guys they’re probably sick of hearing me, every pitch, every inning, every game, that good things happen when you’re in the (strike) zone,” Crowe said. “They weren’t just in the zone with fastballs, but off-speed too, and when they’re in the zone the defense is locked in. It was awesome to see us put it together today. We had our two best on the mound and we competed our tails off.”

Softball

Class 3A Pontiac Regional semifinals

(3)Pontiac 11,(5) Kankakee 0 (5 inn.): Pontiac tallied nine of its 14 hits in a seven-run bottom of the first to give Stanford commit Elena Krause plenty of run support early, ending the Southland Athletic Conference champions’ season at 16-10.

Lillian Landis and Kendyl Christon had hits for the Kays. Kylie Glogowski allowed 11 runs (seven earned) on 13 hits in two innings. Kylee Cunningham allowed a hit in two scoreless innings of relief.