Yorkville’s Nick Parashis making the most of move to leadoff, helps lead sweep of Oswego

YORKVILLE – Nick Parashis started the season as Yorkville’s fourth outfielder, a position the natural infielder worked to familiarize himself with.

He eventually earned a spot in the starting lineup, in right field.

The Foxes’ bad fortune – Jailen Veliz’s season-ending knee injury last week – predicated Parashis’ move from the bottom of the order to leadoff.

Parashis has taken that promotion and run with it.

The 5-foot-8 lefty-hitting senior had three hits Thursday, singling in what proved to be the game-winning run in the fourth inning. Yorkville went on to a 4-3 win over visiting Oswego, sweeping the three-game Southwest Prairie West series.

“It’s a really big step for me, it boosted my confidence hitting up there,” Parashis said. “I’m just trying to set the tone for the game.”

Colin Griffin had two hits and Kal Arntzen a double and RBI for Yorkville.

Parashis has indeed set the tone for the Foxes (13-10, 6-3) in four games atop the order.

He’s hit .400 (6 for 15) and reached base safely in all three wins over Oswego this week.

“He’s been in the lineup a good month now, doing well at the bottom of the lineup. When Jailen went down we had to rethink our lineup a little bit,” Yorkville coach Tom Cerven said. “We needed to get guys on base. Right now there are not many guys getting on base better than Nick is.”

That was certainly the case Thursday, when Parashis had three of Yorkville’s nine hits.

Parashis went the opposite way for a double over the left fielder to lead off the first, and scored on Arntzen’s sacrifice fly.

His infield single in the second brought in Griffin to tie it 3-3.

Then, with two out in the fourth, Parashis laced a single to right to score the go-ahead run for a 4-3 lead.

“It’s really a mindset there. I know I have to get my guy in, find a hole and make it happen,” Parashis said. “Mainly pitchers tend to throw me outside so I like to use the whole field, work my way around. Usually I’m a back side hitter, but today I ended up pulling the ball and finding holes.”

The move to leadoff was not an altogether unfamiliar switch for Parashis, who said he’s hit leadoff the last two seasons. The move to right field was new, but Cerven said he’s handled both switches with aplomb.

“Over the last year he’s put a lot of time and effort into playing the outfield. When he got an opportunity to win a job he grabbed it, and stepped up to fill the void left by Jailen,” Cerven said.

“One thing about Nick, his bat to ball ability is really good. When he does get fooled he has confidence he will battle and grind and eventually if a pitcher makes a mistake, he’s going to put a good swing on it.”

Yorkville starting pitcher Ryder Fisher, meanwhile, overcame shaky command – five walks and two hit batters – to get through four innings.

Kamden Muell and Frankie Pavlik followed with three shutout innings of relief as the Foxes bounced back from getting swept by conference-leading Minooka to sweep Oswego.

“Take away that Minooka series I think we’ve won 10 of our last 11. It was nice to see the guys come out and not let last week linger,” Cerven said. “This week it seemed like every win was a different style. Monday the bats did their thing, Tuesday was Gabe [Sanders, a complete game shutout). Today was a mental grind. It would have been easy to let that game slip away. Even though Fisher didn’t have his best stuff he grinded.”

Dylan King had three of Oswego’s four hits with a two-run single in the first inning.

The Panthers (19-8, 3-6) failed to capitalize on free baserunners throughout, with nine fly ball outs. They also had a runner thrown out on the bases in the fifth.

“A little bit of that hitter’s funk. It’s never easy when they’re all doing it at the same time,” Oswego coach Joe Giarrante said. “Sometimes we’re pressing a little bit, trying to do too much. They just have to keep working, grinding and those hits will fall like they were earlier in the season.”