Braden Behringer responds to early wildness, pitches Sandwich to sweep of Plano

PLANO – Braden Behringer kept his coaches’ advice close to mind as he navigated through early trouble Wednesday.

Sandwich’s junior pitcher hit a Plano batter on his first pitch of the game. After a walk and a wild pitch, Behringer was in a jam before he barely broke a sweat on a cold, rainy afternoon.

“One of the five things we talk about is response,” Behringer said. “That is what the coaches were talking to me about, is how to respond to a situation like that.”

Behringer indeed bore down to get out of the inning unscathed. And never looked back.

Behringer struck out 10, took a shutout into the fifth inning and worked into the sixth. Fellow junior Griffin Somlock closed the door on a Plano rally for the second straight day, as Sandwich held on for a 7-4 win to sweep the Kishwaukee River Conference series.

Somlock, who preserved a 9-8 win over Plano Tuesday with an inning of relief, got back-to-back strikeouts to end Wednesday’s game after the Reapers had loaded the bases.

“When I come in I’m just trying to get batters out, pitch to contact,” said Somlock, who relieved Behringer with two outs in the sixth. “We just had to stay focused all the way through.”

Behringer allowed four runs on five hits and three walks, Nick Michalek scored three runs and Jeffrey Ashley doubled in the game’s first run for Sandwich (4-7, 2-0).

Behringer took a few batters to find the feel for his curveball, leaving it up early. But it became a strikeout pitch for him as the game wore on, and he had eight strikeouts through three innings.

“I got a little warmed up with the curveball,” Behringer said. “Seeing strikes and confidence with it helped me out with it. Today it was working a lot better than I thought it would. It plays well off the fastball because it comes from the same arm angle. And it just drops off the table I guess.”

Behringer brings much to the table for Sandwich coach Jason VanPelt, who is counting on him as one of three junior starters back from a 17-win team.

Behringer filled more of a closer role last year, getting a few starts on the weekend, but he looks ready for more this spring. He struck out 10 in five-plus innings against Somonauk and allowed just one earned run over six innings last week in a 2-0 loss to Reed-Custer.

Behringer earned his first win Wednesday, Sandwich’s third straight.

“He is throwing really well right now,” VanPelt said. “Once he got that curveball going today he was really locating his fastball really nice. He was throwing the curve for strikes and did an outstanding job. He had great command of the game out there.”

Sandwich got on the board first with two out in the third. Michalek walked, and Ashley turned on an 89 mile per hour fastball from Jason Phillips for an RBI double.

Ashley came around to score on an error, and things quickly unraveled for Plano (2-10, 0-2) the next inning.

Sandwich sent 10 batters to the plate in a four-run fourth to lead 6-0, without a base hit. The rally was fueled by three walks, two hit batters, two errors and a wild pitch.

Plano’s own first-inning scoring threat against Behringer was snuffed out when a runner was thrown out trying to steal home.

“Defensively right now we’re just struggling to make some routine plays,” Plano coach Nate Hill said. “There are innings that we pair that with the inability to throw strikes and it kind of snowballs on us.”

Similar to Tuesday’s game, Plano rallied late.

Braylon Schmidt’s pinch-hit RBI double and Amari Bryant’s two-run single with two outs in the sixth pulled the Reapers to within 7-4, and they put the tying runs on base in the seventh.

Phillips, who struck out nine over five innings, allowed just two hits with just one of his six runs allowed earned.

“Very similar two games for us,” Hill said. “We’re struggling to get that big hit. We have a few guys with a lot of varsity experience and still others are figuring it out. It’s frustrating, but we’ll get there.”