The West Chicago Wildcats’ Varsity baseball team continued their win streak on April 29 with a win against the Glenbard East Rams, who fell to third in the Upstate Eight after Monday’s loss.

Sophomore Ashton Aldaco continues to impress even with Michigan State University and Concordia University scouts in attendance. Aldaco let up one earned run in four innings pitched.

Senior Brandon R. Heath relieved Aldaco and sat the Rams down to finish the game with a 3-2 Wildcats score.

Trevor Rehnstrom, who de-committed from Minnesota University in late 2023, started for the Rams in Monday’s contest.

Senior southpaw Tyler Heath toed the rubber for the Wildcats. T. Heath has a 1.80 ERA, and leads the team. T. Heath made the first three batters he saw ground out to end the first inning with only 10 pitches.

Senior Brandon R. Heath and junior Tommy Doyle struck out for the first two outs of the bottom half of the inning. T. Heath helped himself with a single up the middle, but did not go anywhere because of a Kyler Campbell (’24) pop-up.

In the top of the second, T. Heath made Connor Peckham and Devin Kraft ground out and forced the Rams’ Grant Bruen to fly out to WEGO junior Royal Day in right field, ending the top of the second.

Junior Zach Williamson led off with a walk in the Wildcats’ half of the inning, but got caught stealing second. Senior Dominic Cicero followed Williamson with a strikeout. The inning came crashing down when senior Rafa Herrera-Mota struck out as well, ending the inning.

All was not lost, however. The top of the third is where T. Heath got into a pitching jam. With singles by Glenbard East’s Ryan Frano and Paulie Steiskei to lead off the inning, the Rams had all the momentum. However, a flyout to Day in right field by Glenbard’s Lucas Calderin calmed the nerves of the Wildcats.

Glenbard’s Brett Vercruysse got hit by the pitch in the next at-bat to get the bases loaded. Then, Chris Ludwig stepped into the batter’s box trying to score the game’s first runs, but eventually lined out to Doyle in center.

With two outs and bases still loaded, the Rams’ Aidan Towey lined the ball into right field to score Frano and Steiskei. Peckham struck out to end the top of the inning.

The Wildcats could not get anything on the board in the third or fourth innings. Glenbard East were scoreless as well.

In the bottom of the fifth, Herrera-Mota got to first on a walk to lead off for West Chicago. He reached second on a wild pitch. Day struck out for the first out of the inning. Herrera got to third on another wild pitch, and momentum was high. Junior Zack Kreitzer got to first on an error by Vercruysse. Then, B. Heath popped up to the catcher for the second out of the inning.

Doyle hit a comebacker to the pitcher, and the ball bounced away to give Doyle an extra second for Glenbard East not to force a throw. Herrera-Mota scored from third on the play to bring the Wildcats within one. T. Heath settled in next and looked at a full count, but poked a ball up the middle for pinch-runner Aldaco to score from second.

T. Heath got tagged out after running over Vercruysse at second after trying to stretch it into a double. Vercruysse had some words for T. Heath, but the field umpire separated them quickly.

No runs were scored until extra innings in the bottom of the eighth.

After Williamson retired the side in the top of the eighth, the Wildcats were looking for someone to come through in the clutch. B. Heath led off the inning with a single into left field. Doyle followed with a sacrifice bunt to move B. Heath over to second. T. Heath got intentionally walked. B. Heath stole third safely and forced a bad throw that got away from Bruen, but B. Heath did not want to test the competition; during the play, T. Heath got to second.

Campbell, a saxophonist in the school orchestra, stepped into the box with one out. Campbell got two quick strikes on him, but that did not change his mindset. On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, in an almost melodic moment, Campbell hit a fly ball into center that was barely deep enough where B. Heath had a chance to beat it to the plate.

Kraft caught the ball on the run and threw it home. B. Heath then beat the ball by inches to score the game-winning run for the Wildcats.

“I was looking for a pitch elevated in the zone so I could get something in the air to bring Brandon home,” Campbell said.

“It’s just a good high school baseball; they [GBE] played well, they [GBE] threw the ball really, really well. When you have a tough arm like what they had going, it’s just about scratching here and there and seeing what they got in the bullpen, and luckily, we broke through there. Just put the ball in play and put the pressure on them, and that’s what happened there in that last inning,” head coach T.J. Nall said after the game.

The Wildcats want to keep the ship afloat in the next series against the Bartlett Hawks, who are second in the Upstate Eight.