Preston Regnier, now Yorkville’s ace, looks the part in dealing shutout of Joliet West

YORKVILLE – Preston Regnier required one time through the order Tuesday to find his peak velocity, and it was no surprise to the Yorkville senior.

Regnier intentionally does not overthrow before games. He makes sure he’s loose, but he doesn’t throw 20 warmup pitches at 100%.

“I don’t go crazy before games. I want to make sure I can give my team as many innings as possible,” Regnier said. “I only throw my last warmup pitch at 100%. It’s worked for me as long as I’ve pitched. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

Regnier indeed has it working.

He enjoyed a breakout junior season and was brilliant in his first extended start this spring.

Regnier struck out eight in six innings of shutout ball, leading Yorkville past visiting Joliet West 5-0.

Aaron Klemm had two hits and two runs scored, and John Giese had two hits with two runs scored and two RBIs for Yorkville (3-3-1).

Regnier allowed one hit and two walks and threw 91 pitches. Regnier didn’t record his first strikeout until nine batters in but struck out two batters in each of the last four innings he threw.

After throwing 72 pitches over three innings in his first start, against Lemont, Regnier on Tuesday was efficient and at times dominant.

“Once I get past a certain inning, third or fourth inning, I feel like my arm loosens up more,” Regnier said. “Some of those last few innings I felt like I had more velocity than the first couple. Curveball wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, but overall a good start.”

To Yorkville coach Tom Cerven, key to Regnier is being able to locate his fastball.

“When he is down in the zone with his fastball it usually sets him for the day,” Cerven said. “Even though he didn’t have the command of his curveball like he usually does the fastball was good enough and the curveball was close enough to keep them off balance and challenge batters. If he does that, it’s good.”

Cerven has seen enough of it from Regnier.

Unheralded coming into last spring, Regnier was a revelation for an injury-ravaged Yorkville staff. He posted an 8-3 record with a 2.10 ERA and 49 strikeouts over 36⅔ innings, and batters hit just .189 off him.

He delivered in multiple roles, but it’s clear who he is coming into this spring.

“They’ve made it clear that my role will be Game 1 starter, conference games, and I love it,” said Regnier, committed to Division III Concordia University-Mequon. “I love giving my team a chance to win.”

With Regnier’s role solidified this season, Cerven expects more of the same out of him as the staff ace.

“We weren’t sure where he would play last year – pitcher, catcher – and he took his opportunity and didn’t give it back," Cerven said. “You can just see his confidence. He knows he has the stuff to compete. We know when he’s out there, it’s a good day to get a win.”

Yorkville, after an 0-3 start, has won its last three. The Foxes scored unearned runs in the second and third innings Tuesday, Giese singling in Klemm in the third, and Giese doubled in Klemm in the fifth and scored on a Bodhi Harrison single.

“We definitely took our lumps early, and we have a lot of young guys. When you have a junior-heavy lineup like we do, you’re going to have some guys learning to play at the varsity level,” Cerven said. “It took a little time but the last week it’s started to turn around.”

Joliet West can relate to that.

The Tigers (2-7) graduated 14 seniors off a 32-5 team, best in program history, and had little experience coming into the spring.

Mark Spoto’s double and Peyton Barborek’s single accounted for the Tigers’ lone hits Tuesday, and they committed four errors behind starting pitcher Ryan Sobun.

“We’re very inexperienced, coming off a season where we won 32 games and broke every record, and we lost everybody. We’re trying to figure it out,” Tigers coach John Karczewski said. “It’s going to take some time, and with the inconsistent weather it’s tough. We’ll figure it out.”

Sobun allowed just two hits through four innings before getting chased with two outs in the fifth. He struck out four.

“Ryan is a senior, he’s been with us for three years now. He’s our top arm and he threw a good game last week against a good Morris team,” Karczewski said. “We just didn’t have any support for him.”