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Other Area Scores & Highlights

Seneca 11, Dwight 3

At Seneca, the Irish improved to 16-11 and 9-1 in Interstate Eight Conference play with a victory over Dwight. Seth Hobbs threw a complete-game three-hitter, striking out nine, while not allowing a walk in the win.

Hobbs helped his own cause by hitting a solo home run. Jerred Ness was 2-for-2 with a triple and Nick Ugolini added an RBI double.

"Well it sets up a big two-game conference series with Coal City, Thursday-Friday, and Reed-Custer, Monday-Tuesday." Seneca coach Kirk Houchin said, "We're playing good baseball right now and we just need to go take care of business."

Coal City 6, Sandwich 1

At Sandwich, Coal City got revenge afternoon after suffering a defeat a day earlier at the hands of the Indians. Ben Rouse allowed one unearned run in seven strong innings of work.

The Coalers broke open a tie game scoring five runs in the top of the seventh inning.

T.C. Blanford added two hits for Sandwich in the defeat. Matt Cervantes held Coal City in check before losing the game in the seventh.

Lisle 9, Plano 7

At Plano, the Reapers on Tuesday scored early and late but it wasn't enough to beat Lisle, which scored seven of its nine runs in the final three innings.

Nick Preston had three hits for Plano, while Will Brown drove in two in the loss. Kevin Klingberg entered in relief of Ben Heller, giving up three runs in the final inning for the loss.

More Late Inning Heroics For Newark And Janssen
Junior Caps Week With 16 k’s Versus Serena, Norsemen Now 17-5

By Bill Lidinsky

If you are a Newark High School varsity baseball fan you don’t have to go too far these days to witness top quality thrilling contests. Not only are the Norsemen on pace to set a school record for wins in a season, but they’re moving toward their goal in stunning fashion with dramatic victories and clutch individual game time performances.
By now it’s no secret that “Captain Clutch” for Newark is junior pitcher Kyle Janssen. Area coaches and teams fear when he takes the mound against them while some local collegiate programs are busy taking notes on his pitching dominance and inevitable progress toward the next level of play on the mound.
On Tuesday at Serena, Janssen once again established his mastery on the hill during a 8-4 nine inning thriller over the Huskers in which he struck out a staggering 16 batters.
But what also became evident in the Little Ten Conference clash was that Janssen is clearly no slouch at the plate also.
In a classic pitcher’s duel with Serena senior hurler Jeremy Foreman, Janssen not only came through in crunch time on the mound but he delivered not one but two crippling blows at bat to the Husker hopes of victory during one of the most pressure filled times of the ballgame.
Newark junior Mitch Dunlap touched Foreman in the first inning with a solo homer over the 340 mark in left center to give the Norsemen a 1-0 lead. It was Dunlap’s eighth homer of the year.
But Serena responded with only the third and fourth earned runs given up by Janssen so far in 2006 notching single runs in the bottom of the first and third to give the Huskers a 2-1 advantage after three.
Foreman and Janssen exchanged blows like heavy weights on the mound for the next three innings that saw two of the areas best pitchers go toe to toe.
Foreman was poised for the upset victory over his much heralded counterpart but Janssen decided he was not about to let his perfect pitching record in 2006 come to an end and took matters into his own hands at the plate.
On the brink of a Serena victory with two outs and nobody on in the top of the seventh, Foreman walked Newark’s Brian McGrath on a three-two pitch. Foreman then hit Norsemen senior Patrick Quantock with his first offering to put Newark runners on second and first.
Up stepped Janssen who was sitting “dead red” on Foreman’s first pitch fastball and promptly delivered a clutch three-run bomb over the left center field fence to give the Norsemen a 4-2 advantage.
“Foreman gave me a fastball at the knees and I figured he was going to come in with it so I jumped on it. It came off the bat well and we were able to take the lead,” Janssen said. “I give all the credit to Brian and Patrick for getting on with two out in a desperate situation in front of me. If they don’t do that we don’t win and the game is over.”
With a two run lead and Janssen still on the mound, the game figured to wind down quickly and be in the win column for Newark.
But the Huskers would no die. With one out Janssen surrendered a double to Serena junior Cooper Westvig. After a error by McGrath, Husker senior Dallas Kempiak reached base putting Westvig on second. Serena’s Charlie Boyd then singled to score Westvig to make the score 4-3 with Kempiak going to third and Boyd staying at first. Janssen then retired Foreman on strikes and had cleanup hitter Isaiah Haines 0-2 when Serena head coach Chad Baker pulled a fast one on Janssen. Baker sent Boyd to second hoping to draw a throw to second that would score Kempiak from third. But Janssen inexplicably balked which allowed Kempiak to score knotting the game at 4-4. On the very next pitch Janssen struck out Haines and the game went into extra innings.
“I really wasn’t expecting the balk. I was just hoping to get into a rundown and have a chance to get the run in from third,” said Serena head baseball coach Chad Baker. “The ump called it a forced balk and that’s exactly what happened.”
“I heard coach Baker say “go, go, go” to the runner at first and I didn’t even think about stepping off the mound,” Janssen said. “I should have just thrown over to first but he suckered me into a mental error. It was a good job by coach into forcing me to balk and it extended the game. But my error made me even more focused on getting a win.”
In the extra innings Foreman retired Newark 1-2-3 in the top of the eighth while Janssen struck out the side on the bottom of the frame as the two powers battled into the ninth. That’s where McGrath and Quantock almost identically duplicated their efforts from the seventh inning.
With one out, Foreman walked McGrath on four pitches the hit Quantock once again with his first offering to put runners on first and second for Janssen. Baker then pulled Foreman and put Josh Kueteman on the hill.
But for the second time in as many at bats, Janssen delivered once again big time offensively. On a 1-1 pitch Janssen stroked an RBI single that scored McGrath. Dunlap was then intentionally walked to load the bases for Newark senior Adam Marcley who registered an RBI single that scored Quantock. Junior Dale Johnson then poked a two-run single to right that plated Janssen and Dunlap and Newark owned an 8-4 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
From there Janssen would not be denied as he finished his 16 strike out, six hit gem to improve his season record to 7-0. In 53 innings pitched, Janssen has now only allowed four earned runs with 76 strikeouts as the Norsemen improved to 17-5 overall and 9-3 in the LTC.
“Kyle threw 105 strikes and only 30 balls today. That’s a lot of pitches to throw but he did a great job on the mound and with the bat,” said Newark head baseball coach D.J. Cocks. “He kept us in the game in all aspects. It’s unbelievable. He’s now 7-0 and has only given up four earned runs all year. I didn’t know if we could pull it out but once again Kyle was our leader both offensively and on the mound.”
Baker echoed Cocks sentiments on Janssen.
“He’s by far the best pitcher we’ve faced this season along with Somonauk’s Nick Duffield. Unfortunately for us Kyle was just as deadly at the plate as he was on the mound. People may think he’s just a great pitcher but he’s a great hitter also and he proved it today,” Baker said.
Despite the win Newark probably lost out on their chance to capture the LTC regular season crown with a 12-8 loss on Monday at home versus Serena. With the defeat on Tuesday the Huskers suffered only their first conference loss while Newark stands in second place with three losses. Serena has four conference games yet to play but they will more than likely win the LTC crown with upcoming games versus Paw Paw and Hinckley-Big Rock. Still the Norsemen remain upbeat about their chances of entering post season play as the top seed in the opening round of the IHSA Putnam County Regional set for Wednesday May 17. They’ll face the winner of the May 16 matchup between 13th seed Peru St. Bede and 14th seed Spring Valley Hall.
Also in the same regional No. 5 seed Ottawa Marquette will take on the ninth seed host Putnam County in the other semifinal matchup scheduled for May 18. The Norsemen will yet face P.C. at home this Saturday in what shapes up as a possible preview of what could be a regional final matchup between the two schools.
“Putnam County will be tough this weekend so hopefully we can grab a pair of wins against them. We have seven regular season games to play and if we win them all we tie a school record and that’s without going into regionals, so that would be nice to have,” Cocks said.
Before Putnam County on Saturday the Norsemen host Cornerstone Christian on Thursday and then next week close out the regular season with a pair of games versus Paw Paw on Monday and Tuesday and the season final at home next Thursday against IMSA.
“If we can keep getting performance like we did today there’s no telling how far we can go in the playoffs. We can’t pitch Kyle every game so other guys are going to have to step up with some big efforts on the mound,” Cocks said. “But when he does pitch it sure is nice to witness and be a part of such special and exciting performances.”