Baseball: Kankakee’s Clay Gadbois tosses no-hitter to oust Streator

KANKAKEE – The reputation of Kankakee pitcher Clay Gadbois preceded him prior to Wednesday’s Class 3A Pontiac Regional semifinal.

Gadbois was coming off a perfect game in his previous outing against Urbana, so it was expected that Streator’ s opportunities might be few and far between.

But things started well enough. Leadoff batter Jake Hagle reached base courtesy of a Kankakee error. That moment would not lead to good things, however, as Hagle was wiped off the base paths on a force out on Cole Witterrowd’s ground ball two batters later.

That putout started a string of 16 consecutive batters retired by Gadbois, which included a run of eight consecutive strikeouts, as Gadbois finished off a no-hitter in a 3-0 Kankakee victory. The game was hosted by Kankakee because of a scheduling conflict in the original regional draw.

Kankakee (21-13-1) advances to Saturday’s 11 a.m. Pontiac Class 3A Regional title game where it will face Joliet Catholic, an 10-0 winner over Pontiac in Wednesday’s other semifinal. Streator closed the season with a 13-21 record.

“We knew they had their guy going and we had our guy going,” Streator coach Beau Albert said. “It was just a couple of plays here and there, and obviously at some point you have to put the ball in play. A couple of times we thought somebody could drop a bunt down the third-base line, and I think we can walk to first, but we weren’t able to get that down.”

Creativity was going to be required to get anything going off of Gadbois, who was locked in after looking like a mere mortal in a first inning when Streator put the ball in play three times.

He struck out the side in the second and third and got the first two batters of the fourth inning by strikeout before Landon Muntz was finally able to break up the monotony with a ground out to third base.

His strikeout tempo would slow down a little bit after that run, but he still finished with 13 strikeouts in the game and didn’t surrender a walk until Zander McCloskey coaxed one to lead off the seventh inning. He’d be forced out at second on a fielder’s choice grounder from Winterrowd before Gadbois would strike out Muntz and get a pop out from Noah Camp to complete the no-hitter and send the Kays into the regional championship.

“It’s tough. I’m not upset with their effort at all,” Albert said. “But you’ve got to put some hits together against a quality pitcher to win a ballgame.”

Gadbois gave ample credit to his defense for their support. At times, however, they didn’t have much to do.

“My team’s energy is really good. They support me a lot,” Gadbois said. “They make all the plays. I’m comfortable on the mound because I know my catcher is going to do his job and my fielders are going to do their jobs, I don’t have to worry about anything. I just pitch.”

Gadbois’ coach, Tony Sykes, continues to marvel at the run his senior hurler is on. Gadbois has not allowed a hit since May 8 against Lincoln-Way West.

“I feel like I’m a broken record. He’s one of the best pitchers in the area, if not the state,” Sykes said. “I don’t know of many things in life that are easy. Balls did get put in play against him, and we have to find a way to get on base and unfortunately I think we might get a little too relaxed with him pitching. But it is a calm feeling to know he’s out there, that’s for sure.”

Streator’s Hagle tried to match Gadbois the best he could, but Kankakee managed to do things Streator did not. It managed to get some hits (six in total) and string them together in sequence.

Kankakee scored single runs in the first, third and sixth innings with the Kays rapping two hits in each frame. Gadbois started the scoring and ultimately provided the only run Kankakee would need with an RBI double in the first. Byron Willis added an RBI single in the third, and an insurance run came across in the sixth on a wild pitch.