Sports
YHS Baseball Team Won Five of Six Games Last Week
In softball, Yorkville won four out of five games last week, while the girls soccer team fell to IMSA and Coal City.
It was a very busy, and extremely rewarding, week of action for the Yorkville baseball team.
Playing six games in as many days, the Foxes went 5-1 to boost their season’s record to 8-2.
Their lone loss came on Tuesday as Burlington Central took advantage of some sloppy play by the Foxes to win, 3-1.
Find out what's happening in Yorkvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“Well, 6-0 is better than 5-1, which we could have been,” Yorkville coach Scott Luken said. “It was a combination pitcher’s duel but we walked seven and they walked zero, and we had three errors. They scored all three of their runs without the ball leaving the infield.”
Luken is stressing pitching and defense this spring. The team struggled with both on Tuesday, but the pitchers did their part for most of the week, although the defense was shaky at times but strong enough, thanks to the Foxes being able to score a lot of runs. The Foxes crossed the plate 54 times last week, averaging exactly 9 runs per ballgame.
Find out what's happening in Yorkvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“I was really pleased with our pitchers,” Luken said. “Our starting nine is pretty consistent, but we use extra players and they’ve all contributed.”
The Foxes received a strong effort from Cory Westphall in Friday’s 9-3 victory over Streator. Westphall gave the Foxes five innings, giving up just three hits and two earned runs.
“We’re expecting big things from him,” Luken said.
Offensively, the Foxes received strong contributions last week from several players.
Jacob Mathre had his first career multi-homer game in the win against Plano on Monday, Nick Gillette had 3 RBI against Plano, as well as in the first game against Ottawa, James Edwards went 3-for-3 with 3 RBI against West Aurora and Tanner Cook went 3-3 with a double on Friday in the win over Streator.
The Foxes also proved they could rally. In Game 2 on Saturday, they trailed 9-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning.
“I was thinking that it might be time to get some other guys opportunities,” Luken said. “Our bats were ice cold for most of the game.”
The Foxes scored 9 runs to take a 13-9 lead, highlighted by an inside-the-park, but also outside-the-park, three-run homerun by Josh M. Cooper. The batted ball had split the right fielder and center fielder and had passed the fence through an opening. The center fielder threw his hands in the air to let the umpire know the ball had left the field of play. The problem for Ottawa was that the right fielder had retrieved the ball prior to his teammate signaling the umpire, so the ball remained live and Cooper circled the bases.
It was most certainly a wild highlight during a wildly successful week of baseball for the Foxes.
The highlight on the schedule for the upcoming week is Saturday as Yorkville will take on former Western Sun Conference foe, Geneva, at Elfstrom Stadium at 1:15 p.m.
Softball Team Wins Four of Five
Plano must’ve been happy to see Sonja Gilbertson leave on Monday afternoon.
Gilbertson hammered two home runs and drove in seven in a 10-3 victory against Plano to start a very productive week for the Lady Foxes. Yorkville went 4-1 last week to improve to 7-4.
Gilbertson’s hot bat continued on Tuesday as she collected three hits and drove in four more runs in a 7-6 win against Rochelle.
On Thursday, Stephanie Miller went 2-for-4 with a triple and four RBI to lead the way, and Cacey Maciejewski contributed a single and a double and two RBI.
The bats finally were finally cooled off on Saturday. The Lady Foxes dropped a tough, 3-2, game in the opener of a doubleheader against Sandwich, but rallied in Game 2 to win, 7-4.
“Offensively we’ve done some nice things, no question, but we need to continue to do that and capitalize on mistakes the other teams make,” Yorkville coach Kathi Dockstader said. “I told the girls there are going to be some games (like Saturday) where we’re not going to hit as well, but we have to find ways to win anyway.”
The Lady Foxes still aren’t set in the circle. Lauren Rhodes is seeing the most action as she pitched in every game last week except for Game 2 against Sandwich.
“It’s still kind of up in the air,” Dockstader said. “Everyone is going to get a turn here and there.”
Lady Foxes Dominate Distance Medleys
The Yorkville girls track and field team led the way on Saturday at the Plainfield North Relays.
The Lady Foxes won the first distance medley with a 700.69, finishing comfortable ahead of runner-up Minooka’s 7:11.14. Esther Bell, Casey Kramer, Leena Palmer and Ali Hester made up the winning relay team.
They won the second distance medley with a 13:14.33 and once again won handily as second place Streamwood closed with a 13:23.78. The same runners led the way for the Lady Foxes, except that freshman Kelsey Leedy ran in place on Palmer.
“We tend to have a strong schedule against a lot of bigger schools,” Yorkville coach Ben Draper said. “To win those two events in pretty dominating fashion is a testament to the hard work of those girls.”
Draper also was pleased with the efforts of his young team in some of the other track events as well as in the field.
“We’re really young, but we’re also talented there,” Draper said. “The girls haven’t had many chances to get on the track yet, and it’s tough when your first meet is a different format.”
The long jump and triple jump relay team placed fourth and the shuttle hurdle relay team took sixth.
“Plainfield North has one of the better teams in 3A so to be around them was real impressive,” Draper said. “We had some really good individual standouts in some races.”
2nd Place for Boys Track & Field at Niles West
The Yorkville boys track and field team took second place in the Niles West Invite on Saturday. The Foxes finished with 84.5 points while the winning hosts had 114.
“Getting second was really impressive because we go in and try to win some meets, but we want to make sure we’re preparing for later in the season,” Yorkville coach Ben Draper said. “We’re not trying to lose, but not always putting our best feet forward to get maximum points.
Zak Arcara eclipsed his personal best in the 3200 with a 10:06.
“I saw him warming up, and I remarked that he looked fast,” Draper said. “He responded back in the last 100 meters and won by a step.”
Draper also mentioned the strong contributions from Matt Anzelc with the discus, Connor Reynolds with the hurdles and the 3200 relay team.
“(Connor’s) running two events near the end of the meet which is tough,” Draper said. “He won the 300 with a 40.9 which has him ranked in the state and then he comes back anchors the relay. What’s great is he still can improve his form and technique which will get his time down.”
Girls Soccer Squad Falls to IMSA and Coal City
The Yorkville girls soccer team lost to Illinois Math & Science Academy, 2-1, on Tuesday and dropped a tough, 1-0, decision to Coal City on Wednesday.
