Jeffrey Ashley has the frame and hitting ability that would seem to suggest the Sandwich senior catcher can be a pretty fair power hitter.

A three-year starting linebacker in football, Ashley can squat 500 pounds.

But lifting home runs?

Ashley never had hit one in high school before Monday, at Plano.

On Wednesday, he did it again against Sandwich’s neighboring rival.

“If those are my only two home runs,” Ashley said, “I’m glad I did it against Plano.”

Ashley’s homer, a three-run shot in the second inning, was one of four hit by the two teams on a day that the wind was blowing out.

Sandwich built a nine-run lead behind ace Braden Behringer, and barely held on to beat Plano 12-10 and sweep the first Kishwaukee River Conference series.

On his 105th and final pitch, Behringer got a called third strike for his 11th strikeout with the tying run at the plate to close it out.

“He wanted to finish that game, for sure,” Sandwich coach Jason VanPelt said. “He had good stuff out there today. They hit the ball.”

Both teams did, combining for 24 hits.

Behringer got it started for Sandwich (6-6-1, 2-0), a two-run double in the first inning. After Julian Gates’ solo homer in the second for Plano, Sandwich came back with five in its half, all with two outs.

After Nick Michalek reached on a pop fly single, Ashley crushed the first pitch he saw from Gates for his three-run homer to center.

Two batters later, Griffin Somlock hit a two-run homer to make it 7-1.

“I’m just thinking line drive, get on base,” Ashley said. “Day like today, if I can hit it up in the air, it can go.”

Ashley, one of three senior captains back from a Sandwich team that finished tied with the best record in the KRC last year, has had it going so far this spring.

He’s hitting .433 with a 1.330 OPS and a team-best 17 runs scored and 11 walks drawn.

“He’s got good discipline at the plate, he controls his approach and he knows what he is looking for. He gets on base all the time,” VanPelt said. “He puts the ball in play with two strikes, he’s fast so he can beat ground balls out. He does a lot of things for us.”

And yes, even hits homers now.

“I told him preseason ‘You know you’re probably going to hit a couple home runs this year,’” VanPelt said. “He has hit the ball hard in the past on a line but he smoked them. The one on Monday got out in a hurry. The one today, the wind was blowing that way but the ball was smoked.”

Ashley admitted the thought of hitting a home run did enter his mind at the beginning of the year, but it didn’t affect his approach.

“If I keep focusing on just line drives and hitting it hard and fair and put it in play, it’ll be fine,” he said.

Anthony Wade’s RBI single highlighted a three-run Sandwich third to make it 10-1, but Plano (4-7-1, 0-2) put a dent in that lead with a five-run fourth.

Justin Gates doubled in a run, Julian Gates and Braylon Schmidt each had RBI singles and Brandon Ramos’ two-run homer made it 10-6.

Plano coach Tyler Mulligan was impressed how his team battled against Behringer, the reigning KRC Player of the Year.

“Behringer is a phenomenal pitcher; I knew this would be a tougher one with him pitching. I thought this would be a pitcher’s duel but with the wind it became a shootout,” Mulligan said. “I thought our guys had a lot of fight in them which I loved to see.”

That included one of Mulligan’s younger bats, sophomore Julian Gates, who was 3 for 4 with two runs scored and two RBIs.

“He was hitting second and I told him I’d slide him down to five, needed him to get some RBIs,” Mulligan said, “and he did today.”

Sandwich tacked on two runs in the fifth to lead 12-6, it was 12-7 to the seventh, but Plano pressed Behringer to the finish.

Eric Nunez tripled to start the seventh, Justin Bishop walked and Quentin Santoria doubled in a run.

After a quick visit from VanPelt, Behringer came back with back-to-back strikeouts.

“He said to finish the game quickly, that he had to go to the bathroom,” Behringer said. “I felt that was a mound visit to loosen me up.”

Schmidt followed with a two-run single before Behringer’s last strikeout. He didn’t walk anyone but was touched for 14 hits.

“It’s always going to be a tough game against them,” Behringer said. They have a good program and a pretty good team. I know they’re young but they can hit the ball. I knew it would be a battle. The wind doesn’t change much, you just have to respond quickly after a home run."