Glenbard East wins 1-0 showdown with West Aurora

LOMBARD – Already crowned champions of the Upstate Eight Conference East, Glenbard East had an opportunity to face one of the top teams in the Upstate Eight West Thursday afternoon in Lombard.

Pitchers Lucas Calderin, Konrad Toth and Nile Anderson combined for 13 strikeouts during the Rams’ 1-0 victory over conference crossover foe West Aurora (26-6, 14-3).

With the victory, the Rams (22-8, 17-1) extended their winning streak to nine while snapping the Blackhawks’ eight-game streak.

“It was a fantastic game by both sides,” said Rams coach Clayton George, whose team begins Class 4A Glenbard West Regional action Wednesday night against Wheaton North.

“This was a sectional championship style game. We’re playing great baseball right now. We’ve played some good teams leading up to today, and these guys (West Aurora) are fantastic.”

Calderin allowed just one hit — a one-out double in the first off the bat of Oscar Alexander, Jr., while walking one and striking out four in four innings of work.

“My curveball was great today,” said Calderin. “Normally it’s my slider, but my curve was great in the bullpen, so I threw it a lot.”

Calderin also scored what proved to be the lone run of the contest in the second inning.

After coaxing a two-out walk, Calderin advanced to second on Paulie Steiskal’s bloop single, and came across on John Murphy’s RBI single to center, barely avoiding the tag of Alexander at the plate.

“I ran right off the bat, but my coach (George) said I was slow to third,” said Calderin. “It (ball from center fielder Mason Atkins) was right there, but I beat it by a foot and a half.”

Entering the game in the fifth, Toth was dominating with eight strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings before being pulled for Anderson with a full count on the Blackhawks’ batter with the tying run at second and two outs in the seventh.

“He’s our No. 1 (pitcher), and he’s going to throw next Wednesday, so I wanted to make sure he was in full pitch count next week,” George said of Toth.

Anderson needed just one pitch to record the game-ending strikeout.

“We piled up some strikeouts there,” said Blackhawks coach John Reeves. “The strikeouts and fly balls (seven) on a cool day like today, they aren’t going to help us score any runs.”

The Blackhawks’ best scoring chance came in a bizarre sixth inning.

Atkins led off with a walk and advanced to second on Zach Toma’s one-out single. Following a non-call on what appeared to be a balk, Toth fanned a batter, and catcher Connor Peckham threw behind the courtesy runner on a successful pickoff play to end the threat.

“That was kind of a weird series of events there in the top of the sixth,” said Reeves. “On the balk, he (pitcher) even showed what he did, and their center fielder (Devin Kraft) said, ‘Don’t do that.’ Obviously, it was a balk, and they (umpires) both missed it.

“The base umpire ruled that our runner was safe at first on the pickoff, and then I honestly don’t know what happened. He looked to this guy (plate umpire), and he called him out.

“It was too bad that was how the inning unfolded instead of letting it play out on the field. In a tight game like this, you don’t know what could have happened.”

Toma pitched a four-hit complete game with eight strikeouts for West Aurora, which begins regional action against Neuqua Valley next Thursday.

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