Hot-hitting Landon Clements leads McHenry to back-to-back sectional titles

McHENRY – School-record win total. Most career victories for a pitcher in team history.

Back-to-back sectional championships for the first time.

McHenry‘s special baseball season continued Saturday, and sophomore second baseman Landon Clements almost added to it with another spectacular feat.

Clements fell a home run shy of the cycle in the Warriors’ 7-3 win over Barrington in the Class 4A McHenry Sectional championship game.

“[Hitting for the cycle] would have been cool,” Clements said after going 3 for 4 in helping McHenry (34-4-1) successfully defend its sectional title and earn a berth in Monday’s 6 p.m. Kane County Cougars Supersectional against South Elgin (25-10) at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva.

Louisville commit Brandon Shannon pitched four-plus innings in improving to 11-0 in eliminating Barrington (25-12-1), which led 2-0 after two innings. Shannon, who broke the school record for pitching wins a month ago, won for the 25th time in his three-year varsity career.

Winning a sectional title for the second year in a row and only the third time in school history means more to the hard-throwing righty.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Shannon said. “It’s something very special.”

As it has all season, McHenry showed resiliency Saturday. Barrington touched Shannon for a run in the first inning on Jackson Cavaliero’s two-out RBI double, and the Broncos went up 2-0 in the second when Shannon uncorked a wild pitch with the bases loaded and two out.

McHenry cut its deficit in half in the third on Kaden Wasniewski’s RBI single, after Clements pulled a triple into the right-center gap. The Warriors then sent 11 batters to the plate in a five-run fourth, ending the day for Barrington junior lefty Will Renshaw, who spun two no-hitters this season.

Barrington coach Pat Wire felt his team was the victim of multiple missed calls, including a would-be pickoff after Zach Readdy led off the McHenry fourth with a walk. Donovan Christman then got hit by a pitch, and when the Broncos threw late to third base on A.J. Chavera’s sacrifice bunt, the bases were loaded.

One out later, Clements singled into left field, scoring two runners and giving McHenry the lead at 3-2.

“It put us in a bind,” Wire said of the no-call pick-off at first base. “You’re playing a 33-win team, and there’s nothing you can do about [the call].”

Wasniewski (2 for 2) added a sacrifice fly, Kyle Maness singled home a run, and Readdy’s RBI walk capped the inning. The Warriors had left the bases loaded in the first.

“Nothing ever really fazes them,” McHenry coach Brian Rockweiler said of his players. “It seems like we leave a lot of guys on base a lot of games, but they just find ways to win – all of them. It’s been like this all year."

The lefty-hitting Clements, who hustled for a rare infield double in the first, came to the plate in the fifth needing only a homer to hit for the cycle. He drew a walk and then flew out deep in the seventh, as left fielder Tommy Abbatemarco made a running catch, about 20 feet from the fence.

“I hit that really good,” Clements said. “I was thinking, ‘Just attack, be on the fastball, hit it hard.’ ”

Clements doesn’t have a homer this season, but Rockweiler has seen plenty of spectacular play from the varsity rookie.

“He’s on a tear,” Rockweiler said. “The second half of the year, he’s been lights out. Not only offensively, but defensively. He’s just a competitor.”

Shannon allowed one earned run and struck out eight. He walked three, which was part of the reason for his elevated pitch count of 91.

“I think it was the fourth or fifth inning, and I looked at my pitch count and it was way too high, higher that I thought it was,” Shannon said. “The first two innings I couldn’t locate very well. I couldn’t punch guys out. But usually I get better as the game goes on.”

Readdy earned the save by pitching the final three innings.

Wire also questioned a balk called against his team that led to another McHenry run in the fifth.

Trailing 7-3 in the sixth, Barrington put its first two batters on base. Jackson Roberts (2 for 4) then singled into center, but center fielder Carver Cohn threw out the lead runner at the plate.

Barrington argued that Chavera, McHenry’s catcher, illegally blocked the plate.

“I feel bad for my guys,” said Wire, whose Broncos last won a sectional title in 2009. “It stinks. I’m trying to help keep their composure, but even I’m struggling with it, and I’m pretty good at it. ... My team is a great team. They’re young, they’re gritty, and I feel for them because they laid it all on the line to even get to this point.”