Baseball: Plainfield South leads from start in season-opening win at Streator

STREATOR – It took the Plainfield South baseball team a little more than a week from the statewide opening day and a 56-mile one-way drive to get their season started Tuesday at Streator.

It was worth the wait.

Blake Pommachannom launched a first-inning solo home run, Robert Herrera took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, and cleanup batter Evan Carey drove home three runs as the Cougars defeated the Streator Bulldogs 6-2 at the SHS Athletic Fields.

“It felt great to be back out here,” Carey said. “Haven’t played the game since July. It’s been a long offseason, but to get that win, it’s really good to be back out here.”

Streator is 2-1, while the Cougars start the season 1-0.

Following Pommachannom’s round-tripper in the first and Ivan Herrera drawing a walk and scoring thanks to two wild pitches in the second inning, Plainfield South took control in the third on back-to-back doubles from Daniel McCauley and Carey. Carey’s landed about a third of the way up the center-field fence, scoring McCauley and Pommachannom and pushing the Cougars’ advantage to 4-0.

“It felt good off the bat,” Carey said. “But every baseball player will tell you, I had no idea if it was going to go that far. I was really just thinking, with guys at second and third, just get one RBI there. But it carried so much and then it hit the fence, and yeah, my heart sank a little bit, but it felt really nice to hit that ball that well.”

That fourth inning proved to be the last one for Streator lefty starter Jacob Hagie (pitching loss, 3 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 6 K). Although fellow junior Blaize Bressner (3 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 1 BB, 0 K) came in and for the second time this season quieted the opposing lineup in relief. The Bulldogs couldn’t mount any sort of rally against Plainfield South righty Herrera, who didn’t surrender his first hit until a Hagie bloop single to center to lead off the fifth.

“Robert got ahead of hitters and pitched well,” Plainfield South coach Phil Bodine said. “We’ll get better, and I know [Streator] will get better. It was a good first game for us.

“I think we’ll swing it better down the road. At least I hope we do.”

With the no-hitter broken up and his pitch count rising, Bodine pulled Robert Herrera (win, 5 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 7 K) in favor of fellow junior Tyler Lovell (2 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 K).

The teams traded two runs apiece in the seventh inning – the Cougars getting an RBI single from Carey and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Ivan Herrera; the Bulldogs singles from Brock Minkler and Landen Cook followed by non-hit RBIs courtesy of Colin Byers and Streator relief pitcher Carson Shinkey (1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 K).

After a day filled with offensive frustration for the most part, Streator scrapped to get the potential tying run on deck.

“We weren’t very effective against [Plainfield South pitching] early, don’t think we got a hit ‘til the fifth and didn’t get anybody onto second base until the seventh,” Streator coach Beau Albert said. “So it’s tough to get anything going when it’s like that, but like I told the kids ... they weren’t conceding or giving anything up, and it was nice to see some guys off the bench step up and get us some hits in the seventh when it was their turn to get an opportunity.

“It was one of those games where I didn’t think our defense was bad. I thought we pitched pretty well for the most part, you know? But they sent one out in the first inning and added more runs, and that 4-0 felt like a 12-0 lead most of the day.”

Pommachannom (three runs) and Carey (three RBIs) had two hits apiece.

Plainfield South is scheduled to host its home opener Wednesday against Bradley-Bourbonnais.

Streator is scheduled to play Wednesday, visiting Illinois Valley Central in Chillicothe.