Gabe Sanders’ preparation for his starts involves unplugging from the pressure of the game.

He really unplugged Monday.

As Sanders and Yorkville players warmed up before their game against visiting Romeoville, lightning sent them into the school for a 39-minute delay.

“I didn’t even bring my phone in there with me. I was just trying to lock in before the game,” Sanders said. “I just don’t even think about the game. I try to think about other things, interact with friends, try to distract myself from the pressure of the game.”

Once the wait was over, Sanders was locked in.

The Yorkville senior left-hander took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and struck out nine over six innings.

Frankie Pavlik wrapped up the one-hit shutout in the Foxes’ 3-0 win over Romeoville in the Southwest Prairie Conference crossover.

Sanders (3-0) allowed just two baserunners and needed just 77 pitches to navigate his six innings. He threw 52 pitches for strikes.

“I think the offspeed today was definitely one of my better pitches, also the fastball pairing that with the tail away with the curve,” Sanders said. “If I can get it over for a strike, the offspeed, that helps me a lot.”

Sanders needed just nine pitches to get through the first inning and had the strikeout pitch going early.

He got all nine of his strikeouts in the first four innings and struck out the side in the second, around a two-out walk.

“It was real apparent real quick that he had the changeup working today. He goes fastball changeup that’s really hard for batters,” Yorkville coach Tom Cerven said.

“Gabe was willing to throw his changeup at any spot – full count, 0-0. If you’re able to throw changeups and offspeed in fastball counts, it kind of messes with the hitters in terms of what might come down the road."

Even when Romeoville hitters made contact, they rarely squared him up. The lone exception was Jeremy Thompson’s rocket that Yorkville third baseman Robbie Mueller snared in the fourth.

Jack Mulheron broke up Sanders’ no-hitter with a single up the middle with one out in the sixth, but Romeoville’s last five hitters went down at the hands of Sanders and Pavlik, who struck out two.

“He [Sanders] threw really, really well; he kept us off balance,” Romeoville coach Michael Skroch said. “We were missing fastballs, fouling a lot of fastballs off early, which allowed him to use his offspeed pitches, and they were very good today.”

Cerven is getting used to seeing good pitching early this season. On Saturday, junior Jackson Knickerbocker threw a complete-game shutout at Morris.

“We knew we had some good arms coming in, but it’s high school baseball, you never know how they’ll react,” Cerven said. “We knew we had some good seniors; it was a matter of how our younger arms would come around. Gabe has been really good. Ryder Fisher is rounding into shape. We got Pavlik, Knickerbocker, as a junior, who is looking really good, and the sophomore we brought up, Gavin Shimizu, has been sharp. We’re in really good shape with the pitching.”

Yorkville (7-4) had three runners thrown out on the bases, two at home plate in the first, but broke through in the fourth. Kamden Muell singled and came around to score on a two-out passed ball. Owen Middleton’s two-run homer in the sixth made it 3-0.

Romeoville’s Tyler Rizzatto kept his team in it despite traffic in all but one inning, striking out four and scattering seven hits and four walks.

“He pitched really well, did a really good job with their baserunners,” Skroch said. “He kept us in the game.”