Preston Popovich, Kaneland bounce back from loss to Sycamore with run-rule win

MAPLE PARK – The way Preston Popovich fields at third base, Kaneland coach Brian Aversa said it’s tough to take him away from the hot corner.

But the way he’s been pitching lately, Aversa said, changes the math.

Popovich allowed one earned run in a five-inning complete game, striking out seven in a 12-2 win over Sycamore on Thursday to take two of three from the Spartans in an Interstate 8 series.

“He’s so valuable on defense for us,” Aversa said. “But he’s been making our decisions easy. Like hey, here you go. So he did a great job.”

Popovich also brought a strong bat to the plate for the Knights (15-5 overall, 6-2 conference), collecting three of their eight hits. His single to right in the fifth scored Carter Grabowski with their 12th run, securing the run-rule victory.

He drove in two runs, scored twice and had one fewer hit than the four he allowed to the Spartans.

“I definitely think we had a good approach at the plate,” Popovich said. “We were looking for our pitch and driving the ball to all parts of the field.”

Sycamore (12-8, 5-4) tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the third after Sawyer Valdez singled to start the inning, moved up on an error and scored on a single by Davis Collie.

That was the last hit Popovich allowed over the final three innings. Only two more Spartans reached base the rest of the way.

It helped that the Knights staked him to an 8-2 lead after a big bottom of the third.

“I think we played pretty well, came out with a lot of energy,” Popovich said. “Big game for us. I think our hitting was big for us because it’s easy to go out there and throw when you have a lead behind you.”

Grabowski and Kanon Baxley started the third with walks, then Popovich singled home Grabowski to put the Knights back ahead. After two more walks and an error on an infield fly, Tom Thill hit a two-run double to center. He scored on another error.

The Knights tacked on two runs each in the fourth and fifth innings to come away with the win.

“He’s a bulldog. He doesn’t care,” Aversa said. “He’ll throw strikes. You’re going to hit it? Great, next pitch. He just doesn’t care about it. He has a short memory and goes on to the next pitch.”

For the fifth straight game, Sycamore failed to score more than two runs. The only win in that stretch was a 2-1 victory over Kaneland on Wednesday.

“We wanted to get that bad taste out of our mouth,” Aversa said. “That happens in baseball sometimes. We didn’t play our best yesterday and the guys were ready to go today.”

The Spartans have scored five runs in the last five games. In an eight-game winning streak right before the cold stretch, they scored 91 runs. Sycamore coach Jason Cavanaugh said it’s just a collective slump for the whole team.

“We scored two runs on a day it should have been easier to hit,” Cavanaugh said. “I thought we had a very hittable pitch and managed to hit three balls hard, struck out [seven] times. It’s not going to go well when that sort of thing happens.”

Brady Alstott had three RBIs for the Knights. Aiden Whildin scored three times and Baxley scored twice.

Three Sycamore pitchers combined to allow five walks, four in the pivotal third. All five batters who walked ended up scoring.

“We didn’t get very good pitching today with all the walks we had,” Cavanaugh said. “They were able to capitalize on a lot of free bases and bad counts our pitchers got into.”

Sycamore hosts DeKalb at 10 a.m. Saturday before facing Ottawa in a three-game conference series starting Monday. Kaneland heads to Lisle at 10 a.m. Saturday before opening an I-8 set against league-leading Morris (15-6, 8-0).

Aversa said he liked the way his team bounced back after the loss Wednesday.