South Elgin senior pitcher Jacob Robertson refused to get rattled against West Aurora Tuesday afternoon.

First, his twin brother and normal starting catcher, Nathan, was not available for the game.

Robertson faced several pressure situations but was able to escape from every jam he encountered, tossing six scoreless innings before junior reliever David Kiel struck out three of the five batters he faced in the seventh to preserve a 3-0 Upstate Eight West victory in Aurora.

The hard-throwing right-hander scattered six hits while striking out eight with a walk and pair of hit batters, as the Storm (14-5, 7-0) continued their unbeaten ways in the UEC West.

“Credit to him (Robertson) and credit to our defense,” said Storm coach David Palmer, whose team has won nine of its last 10. “That’s the spot Jacob wants. He thrives in that pressure role. He wants the ball in that situation, and there’s nobody we feel more confident in to get out of a jam.”

South Elgin staked Robertson to a 3-0 run with single runs in each of the first three innings.

After scoring an unearned run in the first off Blackhawks ace Zach Toma, the Storm made it 2-0 when No. 9 hitter Krish Patel lined a two-out triple off the top of the fence in left-center, driving in Ethan Tuftedal, who reached on a two-out single.

“For a guy who hasn’t gotten a ton of opportunities, to get a two-strike hit off the wall against a pitcher like that was impressive,” Palmer said of Patel.

In the third, back-to-back singles from Zach Barkho (3 for 4) and Jon Niksich put runners on first and second before Max Aziaka’s sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third with 1 out.

Sophomore catcher Evan Gomez followed with an RBI single to right, extending the lead to 3-0.

“That was kind of our approach. We wanted to attack him (Toma) early,” Palmer said. “We knew he was going to get his strikeouts, and we knew he was going to pitch the whole game. We wanted to put some pressure on him early, play a little small ball and execute some things.”

West Aurora had plenty of scoring opportunities.

In the third, Tyler Fecht reached on an infield error, and Oscar Alexander, Jr. was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and second with one out.

Robertson escaped the jam with a strikeout and fly out to center fielder Ethan Tuftedal.

In the fourth, Brayden Jones reached after getting hit by a pitch, and Jeremiah Juarez singled to put runners on first and second with nobody out.

Robertson fanned the next two batters, then walked Evan Franciscy to load the bases before another strikeout ended the threat.

In the fifth, Toma (2 for 3, walk) sliced a one-out double to left-center but was left stranded.

“I just take it one breath at a time, one pitch at a time,” Robertson said. “I know I have my defense behind me.

“We had a tough loss on Saturday (7-3 to Naperville North), so to bounce back and beat a good team like this is incredible,” said Robertson. “This is a great morale booster for everybody.”

Toma went the distance for the Blackhawks (15-6, 7-3), striking out 11.

“We needed that one big hit,” said Blackhawks coach John Reeves. “I would say it was just missed opportunities. Their guy (Robertson) did a nice job getting out of it.”