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Plano Ends Baseball Dry Spell vs. Sandwich
Reapers Clobber Indians By Ten To Stop Skid

By Bill Lidinsky

It had been almost four full seasons and eight straight games since the Plano High School varsity baseball team had experienced a win against their arch rival and neighbor Sandwich.

The Reapers last tasted victory on the ball diamond back in 2002 versus the Indians. But since then they have experienced nothing but frustration with six straight regular season losses and two IHSA regional defeats at the hands of their closest competition.

But Plano senior center fielder Matt Priesman helped the Reapers put an emphatic end to the long dry spell on Thursday April 20 at Sandwich.
Priesman was an impressive four-for-four at the plate with three runs scored and five RBIs including a fifth inning grand slam homer that revived a sluggish Plano attack all the way to a 17-7 six inning victory.

After dropping their second straight Interstate Eight Conference game by the score of 6-3 at home against Seneca on April 18, the Reapers needed to come out strong against a Sandwich team that has had their number over the last few seasons in the I-8.

Priesman was ready to help make that happen from the very first pitch of the ballgame as he laced Indian starting sophomore pitcher Matt Cervantes initial offering into the gap in right center to get Plano off to a fast start with a triple. Priesman then scored on senior Brent Day’s sacrifice fly to give the Reapers a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Sandwich would draw even at one in the bottom of the first as senior T.C. Blanford clobbered a mammoth homer over the 352 sign in left center off Plano junior starter Eric Nelson.

But Priesman would counter with an RBI single in the top of the second that scored senior Will Brown and Plano was up 2-1.
Sandwich would again counter quickly in the bottom of the frame with two unearned runs courtesy of two Reaper errors to take a 3-2 advantage.
Plano would plate single runs in the third and the fourth to take a 4-3 lead but the Indians did not quit.

RBI singles by Blanford and sophomore John Hutchison keyed a four-run Sandwich rally in the bottom of the fourth to give the Indians a 7-4 advantage.
But in the top of the fifth Priesman once again stepped up big time. With two outs and the bases loaded the senior powered a one-one offering from Cervantes deep over the right center field fence to give Plano an 8-7 advantage, one they would never relinquish.

“I sat on the pitch. It was right down the middle and I was able to wait on it and it went over the right field fence,” Priesman said. “I think the grand slam really took out all the air they had left in them. We needed to have somebody step up because we were down by three. I tried to put the weight on my shoulders and after my homer their enthusiasm seemed to die.”

After Priesman’s heroics, junior Brook Bott capped the five-run fifth with an RBI double that scored Day who had singled. That gave Plano a 9-7 lead, but the Reapers run explosion would continue in the top of the sixth as they plated eight more runs.

Senior Nick Preston led off the inning with a solo homer and senior Alex Jensen added a two-run double as Plano went on to win by 10 in six innings thus ending the almost four year drought versus their arch rivals. Nelson recorded his fourth win of the season against no defeats, while Cervantes took the loss for Sandwich on the hill.

“It was nice to get the homer. Coach Holt told me to move off home plate and I got a hold of one that got us started on a big inning that ultimately sealed the game,” Preston said. “I’ve been 0-8 versus Sandwich in my career as a player so it feels real good to finally beat them.”
Preston’s head coach echoed his feelings.

“We’ve had some hard fought games against Sandwich over the past few seasons, but we’ve never been able to prevail,” said Plano head baseball coach Jim Schmidt. “Even when it was 17-7 I didn’t want to take any chances. It’s nice to finally beat them. I know coach (Derek) Avery has a very young squad at Sandwich but we’ll take it.”

Priesman nearly hit with the cycle with the homer, triple, and two singles. But his hot hitting wouldn’t continue the very next day at home against the Indians in game two of the home-and-home series.

Sandwich junior starting pitcher Brendan Ament and senior reliever Jon Kolka combined to limit Plano to six runs on six hits as the Indians rebounded with a 10-6 victory.

Ament’s two run homer off Preston in the second inning keyed the Sandwich attack that saw eight runs in the first four innings as they grabbed an 8-3 advantage after four innings. Preston’s two-run single in the third and junior Josh Wright’s two-run single in the fifth sparked a couple of three-run rallies that pulled Plano to within two at 8-6 after five. But Kolka shutdown the Reapers from there as Sandwich added two more runs in the seventh to gain the four run victory.

Preston took the loss for Plano. His record now falls to 1-5 as the Reapers failed to sweep the Indians and gain momentum.

“We had our chances but we just couldn’t get the sweep. In game one we got the big homer from Matt but in game two we just couldn’t get that one big hit to get us over the hump,” Schmidt said. “They singled us to death while Ament and Kolka pitched well and we couldn’t get the hits when we needed to.”
Plano then embarked on a non conference double-header at home on Saturday April 22 against Indian Creek. In game one the Reapers pounded out 14 runs on 13 hits as they downed the Timberwolves 14-8.

Priesman once again led the way with two hits and three RBIs. Junior Josh O’Hara also added four RBIs as junior pitcher Ben Heller got his third win of the year in relief of senior Shawn Gwilt who pitched four strong innings as the game one starter for Plano.

In game two Indian Creek got to Reaper starter Wright for six runs in the first two innings and Plano never could recover as they went on to lose 12-7. Day had two hits and three RBIs, while Bott added a two-run homer, but it wasn’t enough to overcome eight Reaper errors that led to seven Timberwolve unearned runs.
“We hit the ball well all day against Indian Creek but in game two we just made too many mistakes in the field and we could never recover,” Schmidt said.
Wright got the loss for Plano. His record now stands at 0-2 on the year.

Errors continued to be the downfall of the Reapers on Monday as they played host to I-8 conference foe Reed-Custer. Six more Plano fielding miscues resulted in a 5-2 loss to the Comets.

Trailing 2-0, the Reapers tied the score on Priesman’s two-run homer off Reed-Custer starter Tom Kimbro in the bottom of the third. But the Comets would plate two more runs in the fifth and one in the six off Plano starter Nelson who figured as the hard luck loser dropping his first game of the season to fall to 4-1.
Besides the Priesman homer the only other bright spot offensively was Bott’s three-for-three afternoon with three RBIs that extended his consecutive game hitting streak to 12.

“We had eight hits and they had only four off Eric but we just couldn’t put anything together today,” Schmidt said. “We had our chances again but once again we didn’t help ourselves in the field.”

Plano now takes a 9-12 overall record and 3-4 I-8 conference mark into a full week of games. The Reapers traveled to Reed-Custer on Tuesday for game two of the home-and-home series. Non conference foe Aurora Christian visits Plano on Thursday before a double-header at Hinckley-Big Rock on Saturday. Game time will be at 10:00a.m. The Reapers then spring back into I-8 conference play Monday afternoon at Lisle.

“I told our kids we need to go on an eight or nine game winning streak to gain some momentum going into regionals. We need to play better defense to support our pitchers,” Schmidt said. “I very happy right now with how my juniors Eric Nelson and Ben Heller have performed on the mound. Couple that with the way Matt and Brook have been hitting and maybe we can string some wins together and gain the momentum we need down the stretch.”