On the Friday morning of spring break, the West Chicago Wildcats Varsity baseball team hosted the Glenbard North Panthers, which led to a 5-1 loss for the home team.

After yesterday’s no-hit on from Schaumburg’s freshman pitcher, Hayden Adamowicz, the Wildcats were 2-4 and looking to get their bats back into swinging mode.

Glenbard North was 3-2 and coming off a win against the Larkin Royals, where Panther pitcher Jeremy Cooney let up five runs in four innings pitched. The game against Larkin saw GBN get on the board in the top of the first inning after Zach Larison singled, bringing in senior Kaden Feinstein. Senior Lorenzo Filice then brought Larison home after a double, and the runs kept piling up for the Panthers, leading to a 15-to-5 mercy rule victory.

Today, sophomore Ashton Aldaco got called up from JV for his first Varsity start, and with a quick 10-pitch one-two-three inning, he did not let the team down.

Josh Christman (’24) got the start for the Panthers and let up an infield single to senior Tyler Heath, but the inning would end soon after with a dropped third strike from senior Kyler Campbell.

The top of the second got started with senior Wyatt Sabalaskey getting hit by the pitch for Glenbard North. GBN sophomore Filip Slomba lined out to Royal Day (’25) for the first out of the inning for Aldaco. Filice followed Slomba up with a ground ball to Wildcat senior Ryan Zalak to advance senior Santino Busco, who pinch-ran for Sabalaskey. Aldaco wrapped up the first half of the inning by striking out Glenbard’s Justin Carlson (’24).

West Chicago’s Dominic Cicero (’24) sent a deep flyball over to Filice to start the bottom of the second. Day followed it up with an infield single to shortstop Kanyn Shick. Then Leo Volk, who also got called up to Varsity for today’s game, drew a walk in his first plate appearance. Day stole third to have runners on the corners for Zalak, but Zalak struck out four pitches later to end the inning.

Aldaco kept the scoreless trend going with a hitless top of the third after a pop-up from freshman Cory Truty, a flyout from freshman Brody Libel, and a line drive to Day off the bat of Christman.

Senior Brandon R. Heath led off the bottom of the third with a single, but was caught trying to steal second a few moments later. Junior Tommy Doyle struck out for the second out of the inning, but the Wildcats were far from done. Tyler Heath reached first base on an error from Larison, and Campbell knocked a single over Shick’s head to put runners on first and second for West Chicago.

Rafael Herrera Mota (’24) followed Campbell’s single with a screamer down the third base line, which brought Tyler Heath across the plate for the first run of the game and moved Campbell to third to make the game 1-0 Wildcats. The inning ended after a deep and high Cicero flyout.

At the top of the fourth, Aldaco faced his first adversity as a Varsity pitcher: Larison poked a single to left field to start it off for the Panthers. Sabalaskey followed the single up with a liner over the head of Day for a double to advance Larison to third. Slomba smacked a hard ground ball up the middle to bring Larison and Busco home. The Panthers had bases loaded with no outs after Filice and Carlson both got singles.

Aldaco showed great poise and control throughout the inning, even after letting up two runs and being in a pitching jam. He minimized the bleeding after finishing the inning by striking out Truty, Libel, and senior Kaden Feinstein in three straight at-bats. The Panthers led 2-1.

Day hit a single to lead off the bottom of the fourth, but got picked off at second after Volk’s bunt single. Zalak was then hit in the head by the pitch, which put runners on first and second with only one out. Brandon Heath ground out into a fielder’s choice, and Doyle struck out shortly thereafter to end the inning.

Aldaco’s Varsity pitching debut came to an end at the top of the fifth when Brandon Heath took the mound. Aldaco finished the day with six strikeouts and two earned runs in four innings pitched.

“I think we were doing good defensively and pitching, to be honest, but we couldn’t hit and get on base to score runs,” Aldaco said.

Brandon Heath came into the game and immediately made Christman ground out to Cicero for the first out of the inning. Larison then hit a single into left field for the Panthers; he would go on to steal second and advance to third on a wild pitch on back-to-back pitches.

Sabalaskey got walked, but quickly reached second on a stolen base. Slomba brought in Sabalaskey and Larison on a liner that dropped into left field. Filice then reached first on an error from sophomore Alan Garcia. Carlson brought home the final run of the day – for either team – with a single that moved Slomba from second to make the game 5-1 in favor of Glenbard North.  

“Can’t win games by only scoring one run,” Brandon Heath said.

The Panthers’ Christman threw a complete game with zero earned runs and nine strikeouts in seven innings pitched.

Despite the loss, the Wildcats are not dejected. They start their in-conference games on April 2 when they play East Aurora at home.