Baseball: Coal City stays unbeaten in ICE with 3-1 win over Streator

STREATOR – In the fourth inning of Tuesday’s Illinois Central Eight Conference baseball game, Coal City coach Greg Wills saw what he’s been preaching to his team come to pass against Streator.

The Coalers strung together four consecutive hits with one out and eventually scored three runs. That combined with solid pitching from starter AJ Wills and reliever Lance Cuddy helped Coal City top the Bulldogs 3-1 to stay unbeaten in league play and win for the sixth straight time.

“We have really done a great job all season of putting the pressure on the defense by getting guys on base early in innings, but our bugaboo has been then not being able to then put the ball in play to move runners around,” Wills said, his squad now 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the ICE. “We’ve just had way too many strikeouts in those situations and that was again the case today. We talk about this with the kids all the time, but we just haven’t quite grasped the fact that in certain situations you just have to find a way to put the bat on the ball or find a way to foul off a good pitch to get another.”

“This was a nice win for us because it seems like every time we come here to Streator it’s always a battle.”

—  Greg Wills, Coal City baseball coach

Trailing 1-0, AJ Wills and Danny Olson singled off Streator starter Jake Hagie with one out in the fourth. Austin Davy then lined a base hit to left to score Wills, with Olson going to third and Davy to second on the throw home. The No. 9 hitter Wyatt Wickiser poked an opposite liner to right to plate a pair of runs.

“We did a lot of those things in the third inning, and it turned into three runs,” Coach Wills said. “We got three straight seeing-eye hits with one out, and then Wyatt had a great at-bat and eventually hit the ball the other way to score two. You’re not always going to have those days where you’re hitting the ball to the fence or finding gaps. Those are the days that doing the little things at the plate can actually turn into big things.”

AJ Wills went the opening 4 1/3 innings on the mound allowing just one hit, an unearned run, with six walks and three strikeouts. Cuddy, who came on in the fifth with Bulldogs on first and second and one out and stopped the threat, finished going 2 2/3 innings giving up one hit, no walks with four strikeouts.

“This was a nice win for us because it seems like every time we come here to Streator it’s always a battle,” coach Willis said.

Streator (4-8, 1-3) recorded just two hits in the game, a single by Landon Muntz in the second and a single by Blaize Bressner in the sixth, scored in the third when Carson Shinkey walked to start the frame and eventually scored on an outfield error. Hagie (4 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 7 K) suffered the loss, with Zander McCloskey (3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K) pitching well in relief.

“Today was not unlike much of the season so far for us at the plate,” Streator coach Beau Albert said. “We haven’t struggled so much with getting guys on base, but we just haven’t been consistent in then moving guys over or driving them in. We just haven’t had very many two-out hits with guys in scoring position. Other than maybe two games, I feel like we’ve pitched really well and played solid defense, but the hitting just hasn’t come around yet.

“I told the team, if we get this hitting stuff figured out with the pitching and defense, come regional time we can be a tough out. Credit Coal City’s two pitchers, they pitched well, but that said, we have to find ways to get our offense clicking. It’s just tough when you hold teams to under five runs and just can’t find a way to put together a big inning to break things open.”

Coal City travels to take on Peotone on Wednesday in an ICE contest, while Streator is scheduled to play at Rock Island on Thursday.