Baseball: Hampshire’s Jack Schane fires 1-hitter to beat Cary-Grove in FVC game

HAMPSHIRE – Hampshire left-hander Jack Schane had pitched masterfully the entire game, losing a no-hitter with two outs in the sixth and shutting down Cary-Grove’s bats.

But in the seventh, after issuing his first two walks of the game, Schane saw the action in the Whip-Purs’ bullpen and admitted he was tiring mentally.

“You just want to get through,” Schane said. “You want to keep on pounding the zone the best you can.”

Schane reached back for what he could and got the Trojans’ Peyton Seaburg on a flyout to center field to finish off a 2-0 Fox Valley Conference victory Wednesday. Schane threw 97 pitches, struck out five and faced only three hitters over the minimum to finish his one-hitter.

“[Schane] has been on varsity since sophomore year,” Whips coach Frank Simoncelli said. “He’s been a bulldog for us and thrown a lot of varsity innings. He knows what to do out there and he’s not intimidated by any team.

“He gets that sneaky strikeout when he needs it, trusts his defense and commands the zone. He doesn’t get rattled. Just a good competitor.”

On a day when Hampshire was facing C-G ace Ethan Dorchies, who will pitch at Illinois-Chicago next year, runs were at a premium. That was fine because Schane (3-1, 1.82 ERA) didn’t need many.

“I was just maintaining what I do best, which is pounding the zone,” Schane said. “Sometimes I get some balls hit hard, but most of the time I get soft contact because I get good movement on my fastball.”

Hampshire catcher Calen Scheider led off with a double, and Wilson Wemhoff tripled into the right-field corner for the first run. The Whips (13-6, 5-4) added a second run in the fifth off three walks and a single from Wemhoff.

“Everything was in the right spot for [Schane],” Scheider said. “He throws a four-seam, and it runs like a two-seam and gets a lot of rollovers. His slider was perfect. He was hitting his spots. He did really well.”

Wemhoff made two nice running catches in right field on balls hit by Brock Iverson in the first and seventh. Iverson’s first-inning fly ball was as close as C-G (10-10, 5-6) came to a hit until Cooper Motz singled through the right side with two outs in the sixth.

“He gets that sneaky strikeout when he needs it, trusts his defense and commands the zone. He doesn’t get rattled. Just a good competitor.”

—  Hampshire coach Frank Simoncelli on pitcher Jack Schane

Simoncelli said he wanted the Whips to attack Dorchies’ fastball and not fall behind in counts.

“He attacked me with a fastball, and I saw it out of his hand and put a nice easy swing on it right over the first baseman for a nice triple,” Wemhoff said of his first-inning hit.

The Trojans hit three hard fly balls for outs in the first inning by Hayden Dieschbourg, Iverson and Krysh but did not get a lot after that.

“Ethan was good. If you ask him, he’d feel like he didn’t pitch really well, but if you hold a team to two runs, we expect to win that ballgame,” Trojans coach Ryan Passaglia said. “He gave up five hits, he walked a couple more than he wanted to, but he pitched well enough for us to win.

“Their pitcher was just better today. He did a nice job of mixing pitches and keeping us off-balance. Other than those balls we hit on the screws, he got a lot of weak contact.”

Schane threw a two-hitter against Crystal Lake South but had never come that close to a no-hitter.

“He did an amazing job,” Wemhoff said. “One hit in seven innings, that’s outstanding.”

Simoncelli said Schane’s approach is always pretty straightforward.

“The thing about him is he just attacks,” Simoncelli said. “He keeps you off-balance, he attacks, he limits freebies and trusts that his defense is going to play well for him. Go from there.”

Hampshire 2, Cary-Grove 0

Cary-Grove 000 000 0 – 0 1 1

Hampshire 100 010 x – 2 5 0

WP: Jack Schane (7IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, 5K). LP: Ethan Dorchies (5.2IP, 5H, 2R, 2Er, 4BB, 6K),

Top hitters–Cary-Grove: Cooper Motz 1-2. Hampshire: Wilson Wemhoff 2-3 (3B, RBI), Calen Scheider 1-3 (2B, R).