Area Roundup: Fighting Irish wrestle past Kankakee, host Reed-Custer

BRAIDWOOD - The Seneca wrestling team is off to a great start this strange spring season, and that continued Friday with a pair of wins over host Reed-Custer (38-31) as well as Kankakee (78-0) to move the Fighting Irish to 8-1 in duals.

Scoring two wins on the day for Seneca were: Luke Sangston at 106 (pinfall, forfeit), Jaden Casey at 113 (two pinfalls), Nate Othon at 126 (two forfeits), Owen Feiner at 132 (15-7 dec., pinfall), Kyle Hamby at 170 (pinfall, forfeit), Gavin Robertson at 182/195 (two pinfalls) and Maveric Varland at 220 (9-1 dec., pinfall).

Sandwich 33, Byron 30; Rochelle 35, Sandwich 27: In a triangular, the Indians earned a split.

Scoring wins in both meets for Sandwich were: Kadin Kern at 120/126 (forfeit, 9-5 dec.), Ashlyn Strenz at 120/126 (forfeit, pinfall), Evan Reilly at 132 (2-1 dec., pinfall) and Seven Tornga at 170 (two pinfalls).

Softball

Ottawa 10, Sandwich 4: At Sandwich, the visiting Pirates took control with a six-run fifth inning to make a winner of starter Abby Bukantis (4 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 5 K), with McKenzie Oslanzi (2 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 4 K) also taking the circle.

Abi Claus doubled, tripled and drove home a run for Ottawa (11-1), with Kendall Eslinger (two RBIs), Bukantis (two hits, two RBIs) and Makenna Chiaventone (two hits, RBI) also leading the attack.

Alyssa Cassie singled and knocked a two-run homer for the host Indians. Breanna Sexton and Grace Donahue (2 RBIs) also had two hits apiece, with Donahue (4 IP, 4 ER, 2 K) and Maggie Knepper (3 IP, 1 ER, 3 K) pitching.

Earlville 10, Gardner-S. Wilmington 0 (5 inn.): At Earlville, the host Red Raiders moved to 3-4 led by the bat of Brynn Guelde (single, two doubles, two RBIs) and the arm of Paige Marks (5 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 9 K) in a no-hitter.

Marks helped herself with two hits, Elizabeth Browder tripled and drove home two, and Alexis Olson was 2-for-2.

Yorkville 9, Newark 1: At Yorkville, the visiting Norsemen trailed throughout despite two hits from Taylor Kruser and a Ryan Williams double to suffer their first loss of the season.

Kodi Rizzo (3 IP, 3 ER, 3 K) was dealt the pitching loss for Newark (7-1).

Baseball

Kaneland 9, Ottawa 5: At King Field, the Pirates (8-2 overall, 5-1 Interstate Eight) fell behund early and their five-run sixth wasn’t enough to catch up in OHS’s first I-8 Conference defeat.

Jace Addis doubled and drove home three runs for Ottawa. Luke Cushing also doubled, with Anthony Cooper and Jake Serby each tallying an RBI. Jack Olson (2 1/3 IP, 4 ER, 4 K) went on the hook for the pitching loss before being relieved by Michael Bruner (4 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 2 K).

Somonauk 8, Hinckley-Big Rock 2: In Little Ten play, the visiting Bobcats (2-2 overall and in the LTC) rode a three-hit performance from Brock Zimmerman, two sacrifice flies from Jaylen Dion and a winning pitching performance from Alex Krejci (10 K) to notch the victory.

Brendan Roberts also doubled, tripled and stole three bases for Somonauk.