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OGLESBY – Kaneland catcher Sebastian Cabeza found himself in a position he welcomes Thursday night.
Sebastian stepped to the plate with two runners on and one out in the eighth inning of a tie game.
“That’s the situation I chase,” Cabeza said. “I want to be the person in the last inning with bases loaded and a 3-2 count. I want to drive in the winning run.”
He delivered.
Cabeza ripped his third double of the game to score Grant Williams and the Knights held LaSalle-Peru in the bottom of the inning to edge the Cavaliers, 8-7, in an Interstate 8 Conference game.
“I was glad to see us get some pressure and have to get into extra innings, come out on top and really see what we’re made of,” Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said. “We could have given up when [L-P] had the bases loaded (in the seventh), but we stayed with it. Sebastian came up and delivered another huge hit for us.”
Cabeza went 5 for 5 with two home runs, three doubles, five RBIs and three runs.
“I just wanted to help the team win as much as I could,” Cabeza said. “I felt great at the plate. It’s nice to see all the hard work in the offseason paying off right now.”
Cabeza launched his first home run in the top of the first inning to start a slug-off with L-P junior Julius Sanchez.
Sanchez crushed a grand slam on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first inning to give L-P a 4-1 lead.
Cabeza responded with a two-run double during the Knights’ four-run second inning that gave Kaneland a 5-4 lead.
Sanchez answered with a solo shot on the first pitch of the third inning to tie it.
Cabeza landed the next two blows as he doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth and smacked another solo homer in the sixth to put the Knights ahead, 7-5.
“Sanchez was killing it today too,” Aversa said. “Those two (Cabeza and Sanchez) were going at it. It was awesome to see. I told (L-P coach) Matt (Glupczynski) that our teams are mirror images of each other. Our lineups look the same. We play the same. They’re gritty just like us. I think the series could have gone either way, so we’re happy to come out with two one-run victories.”
The Cavs (0-4, 0-2 I-8) went into the bottom of the seventh down two runs.
After a strikeout, Alex Galindo, Mason Lynch and Jack Scheri drew walks to load the bases.
Drake Weber then brought in a run on a fielder’s choice before the Knights intentionally walked Sanchez to load the bases again.
Aidan Van Duzer drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in the tying run.
Zach VanCura, Kaneland’s second relief pitcher of the inning, struck out the next batter to send the game to the eighth.
“We tried to slow the game down and made their pitchers throw strikes,” Glupczynski said. “The pitcher helped us out a little bit, then we were able to execute and scratch a couple runs across. It would have been real nice to get that third one so we could have gone home earlier with a W, but we did a great job battling and doing some of the little things.
“Right now, what we’re learning is when you don’t do the little things they seem to come back and get you. If we go back and look, there are some little things we didn’t do early that we wish we could have back because that came back to bite us.”
Brady Popovich started and pitched into the seventh for Kaneland (6-2, 2-0). He allowed six runs on five hits with seven strikeouts, four walks and two hit batters.
After allowing five runs on the two Sanchez homers in the first three innings, Popovich kept L-P scoreless and hitless in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
“Pop did what he could,” Aversa said. “We’re looking for that one more arm. If we have that one guy we can go to and say, ‘Hey, go shut the door,’ [Popovich] is not even in that situation [in the seventh]. Pop pitched his heart out. He pitched well enough to win. It’s kind of sad to not see him get the win, but he doesn’t care about that stuff. He’s just glad the team won.”