DeKalb comeback against Auburn sparked by Sykes' double in the third
DeKALB – A four-run third put the DeKalb baseball team in the lead, and the Barbs never looked back, beating Rockford Auburn, 5-3, in the opening round of the Class 4A Guilford Regional.
The Barbs gave up two runs in the first inning and one in the top half of the third. Things got cooking in the bottom half of the frame when Jarrett Sykes hit a double over the head of Knights center fielder Eliott Butler. Matthew Searls knocked him in with an RBI single to cut the lead to 3-1. Back-to-back errors for the Knights plated one run and set the table for a big two-RBI single by Bryce Wheeler.
“Jarrett Sykes’ double kind of ignited the inning and got us going,” Barbs coach Dedric Wright said.
Barbs starting pitcher Jason Klemm had a few hiccups along the way, but ended up going six innings, surrendering three runs (one earned) on five hits, walking three and striking out nine.
“I just wasn’t my hottest today,” Klemm said. “The team was behind my back. … I wasn’t on my game in the beginning of the game. I don’t know what I changed. I focused in.”
Barbs senior Noah Valin said if the senior leaders are playing well, the Barbs have a chance in any game.
“If the four of us (Eric Nelson, Wheeler and Searls) are leading and playing well, I think we have a great chance of beating whomever,” Valin said. “For this game especially, the mentality that we needed to have was to not come in and think that because Auburn is 1-17 that we’re just going to beat them. We need to come out here and play with some energy. Once we got that energy, that inning was our four-run inning.”
Auburn coach Hosea Harris, wrapping up his eighth and final season at the helm of the program, said that while he is stepping aside, he will still be involved with Auburn athletics.
“One thing we are going to do is hit the halls heavy in the school and see if we can get more athletes out. ... We need to get them out for baseball.”
By the numbers: The Barbs scored their five runs on only four hits. Sykes’ leadoff double in the third was their only extra-base hit of the game.
Beyond the stats: Klemm pitched around bases-loaded scenarios twice without giving up any runs. He also helped himself when he picked off a runner at first to end the inning in the top of the second.
They said it: “This was not a typical Klemm outing,” Wright said. “He rarely walks guys and he is always around the zone. For some reason today, he just didn’t have it. But he was able to throw his breaking ball consistently for strikes and that got those guys out on their front foot.”
Up next: DeKalb will travel to Guilford to play Hononegah in the Class 4A Guilford Regional at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.