McHenry sweats out Brandon Shannon’s record-setting 21st win

McHENRY – Blackjack dealers and blackjack players know flirting with 21 can cause sweat on the brow.

Brandon Shannon deals heavy fastballs.

Monday, the senior right-hander sought career win 21 for McHenry‘s baseball team. And he might have had sweaty palms even before he gripped the ball for his mound start against Crystal Lake South.

Certainly, he and teammates had to sweat one out.

Jeffry Schwab induced a groundball out with runners on second and third, earning the save and Shannon the win, as McHenry prevailed 2-1 to remain atop of the Fox Valley Conference standings.

“I was real nervous throughout my school day, like, ‘This is real. This is a record,’ ” Shannon said. “So coming into the game, I was extra pumped more than any other game.”

Shannon, the 6-foot-4 Louisville commit, entered the game tied with Bobby Miller (Class of 2017), current Warriors assistant coach Zach Badgley (2008) and Mark Badgley (2001) for most career wins at McHenry.

Shannon already has a spot on the Warriors’ school-record board that hangs on the side of their dugout, as last year he and Ryan Nagel combined for the 13th no-hitter in program history. This season, Shannon has one no-hitter of his own and one shared with Zach Readdy.

Crystal Lake South (14-10, 6-7) wasn’t about to be the fourth no-hit victim of Shannon’s three-year varsity career. Yandel Ramirez singled with two out in the first but was stranded. That would be a theme for the Gators, who left at least one runner on base in five innings.

South outhit McHenry (22-2-1, 12-1) 6-4. Shannon pitched six innings, striking out eight, walking one and yielding five hits, as McHenry won its 10th straight time.

Shannon did not have a 1-2-3 inning.

“I think I threw well, but I could definitely tell they were barreling the ball,” Shannon said. “They hit me pretty well. I’m not going to lie. If I’m throwing against other teams, usually I can put them away 1-2-3 at least one or two of the innings.”

Ramirez, a right-handed hitter, went 2 for 3 with both of his singles hit to right-center.

“My approach today was just seeing the fastball early in counts,” Ramirez said. “I feel like a guy who throws 90-plus (mph) wants to start with strike one, so he’s going to go fastball most of the time. That’s what I was looking for – fastball, outside, keep my hands back, inside the ball, go the other way."

Liam Sullivan’s fourth-inning sacrifice fly cut South’s deficit in half after McHenry had scored thanks to a delayed double steal by Landon Clements (home) and Conner McLean (second base) in the first and Carver Cohn’s RBI single in the third.

Sullivan, who singled leading off the second, came to the plate with Nolan Dabrowski (bunt single, stolen base) on third with two out in the sixth. Shannon struck out Sullivan swinging with an off-speed pitch.

“That’s Brandon,” Warriors coach Brian Rockweiler said of Shannon’s performance. “We know what we’re going to get every time he gets on the mound. I think [South] did a good job of attacking and putting the ball in play.”

Gators starter Julian Redmond allowed only two hits (both singles) in three innings. The junior right-hander, who’s recovering from an ACL injury suffered his sophomore year, has pitched JV and varsity games this season.

“We’re just building up pitches with him,” Gators coach Brian Bogda said. “Julian’s doing a great job of just building from outing to outing to outing. I’m proud of the way he competed.”

Bogda was happy with his entire team. The Gators went 5 for 5 on stolen-base attempts (Ramirez was 2 for 2), had a sacrifice bunt by Christian Alther and turned a 1-6-3 double play.

“I thought they competed throughout the whole game,” Bogda said. “It was one of our better games. There are games like that where sometimes you lose, but you feel like we did a lot of things right.”

Alther led off the seventh with a single, and pinch hitter Gio Evers-Sanchez reached on a dropped-third strike. Schwab responded with back-to-back strikeouts before retiring leadoff hitter Carson Trivellini on a ground ball to second baseman Clements.

“He’s a competitor, multi-sport guy (football player),” Rockweiler said of Schwab. “Those are the kind of guys you want in those kind of spots.”