Baseball: Plano pulls away to top Rochelle

PLANO – With only three seniors listed on the Plano varsity baseball roster, Kaden Aguirre knew he’d have to be a guiding force for the Reapers this season.

The junior left-hander was the force on the mound Monday during Plano’s Interstate Eight Conference opener against Rochelle.

Aguirre hurled 6 1/3 strong innings before reaching his maximum pitch count, allowing just three runs and four hits while striking out eight and walking six as he led Plano to a 9-3 league victory at Reaper Field.

“I had some control problems at times, but I was able to get out of any bad situations with my fastball and some curveballs that helped me, too,” Aguirre said. “I relied on my defense a lot today, and we didn’t have any errors behind me, so I give my teammates a ton of credit. We’re a very young ball club, but I like the role I have as a leader on this team, and I’m proud of the effort I was able to come up with so we could win our first conference game of the season.”

Plano head coach Nate Hill was very pleased with Aguirre’s performance as well.

“Coming into the season, we knew Kaden would be our top pitcher, and so to come out here and to have such a great starting effort in the first conference game of the year was really important,” Hill said. “He reached his pitch count with one out in the seventh, but Matt Bruell came on and got the last two batters that closed out a nice start to our conference schedule.”

Plano (3-6, 1-0 I8) struck first in the bottom of the opening inning against Rochelle’s starting pitcher Brad Cooney (Loss, 5 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 4 K, 2 BB) when junior Jose Barraza (3 runs) reached on an error and then scored on freshman Jason Phillips’ run-scoring double to the fence in left-center field. Phillips scampered home one pitch later after junior Rylan Aguirre laced a single to left that gave the Reapers a 2-0 lead after one inning.

Rochelle (1-4, 0-1, I8) cut the gap to 2-1 after a leadoff double by Brock Metzger in the top of the third; he eventually scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Alex Burnette.

But Plano countered with two more runs in the home half of the third after an RBI double by junior Nick Serio (2 hits) and a run-scoring single from sophomore Josh Stellwagen that plated Serio and increased the Reaper lead to 4-1 after three innings.

The Hubs were able to touch Kaden Aguirre for two runs in the top of the fourth after RBI plate appearances by Brode and Brandon Metzger that closed Plano’s advantage to 4-3.

But Kaden Aguirre didn’t allow a hit after that, and the roof caved in on Rochelle in the bottom of the sixth.

Throughout a very unusual inning where the Reapers sent 10 batters to the plate, they scored five insurance runs – without the help of any hits –courtesy of five walks, a hit batsman, two errors and four wild pitches issued by the Hubs in the frame to increase the lead to six.

“We were close to getting to their pitcher [Kaden Aguirre], who did a really good job today, but we left too many runners in scoring position a few times when we had a chance,” Rochelle coach Jarrod Reynolds said. “Then down by one run late in the game, we gave up so many bases with walks, errors and wild pitches. After that, the game was pretty much decided. But I was proud of our effort, even though we fell short today.”