Kaneland’s Peters answers challenge

Updated: June 11, 2011 7:35PM

Don’t let Barry beat you.

It was the mantra Kaneland coach Brian Aversa heard over and again when it came to Oak Forest slugger Tim Barry, the Illinois High School State Association’s all-time leader in career home runs and RBI.

It’s the thought most teams had throughout Barry’s career as well. Teams don’t often pitch to him, let alone attack him — even with men on base. Earlier this season, Tinley Park intentionally walked the Kansas State recruit six consecutive times, even if it meant advancing runners.

That wasn’t going to be the game plan for Kaneland, however, during Saturday’s Class 3A state championship game at Silver Cross Field. Knights assistant coaches Jim Smedley, Ernie Colombe, Dan Hallahan, Kevin Boltz and Norm Welker provided starting pitcher Drew Peters a scouting report, and they were going to challenge Barry.

“Absolutely,” Aversa said. “The park’s big enough and we have confidence in our guys. You have to hit our pitching. We’re going to hit the ball so we’re going to challenge guys. We’re aggressive that way.”

Yet early on, Peters put that mind-set to the test. In the first and third innings Barry came to the plate with men on first and second with fewer than two outs.

Both times, the junior left-hander won out. And it paid off with an 11-3 Kaneland triumph.

“We were worried,” Aversa said of those situations. “Drew just handled him perfectly. He’s a special player and I’m glad we got through him in the lineup.”

In the top of the first, Bengals leadoff man John Zubek singled and Peters hit Brian Richard. On a 1-and-2 count, Peters got Barry to pop out to second base.

Two innings later, Zubek and Richard reached again on consecutive one-out singles. This time, Peters got Barry to tap back to him to start a 1-6-3 double play on a 1-1 pitch.

“It was very frustrating because every high school pitcher has to pitch around me because they’re a bunch of little babies, I should say,” Barry said. “They can’t test their abilities against a really good hitter, especially myself. A really good pitcher can pitch against any kind of hitter, no matter what.

“He pitched around me (and) every single at-bat except my last at-bat (against reliever Kyle Davidson). That was the only at-bat that I saw a fastball in my zone.”

For the game, Barry was 1-for-4 with an RBI single off Davidson in the seventh inning.

“Whatever. He can say what he wants to say,” Peters said, nodding to the scoreboard. “We didn’t have to pitch to him, no. I knew if I hit him or walked him, it wasn’t the end of the world — but I knew that I could get him out. He’s not the best guy I’ve ever pitched against, obviously. I knew he was a great hitter, he had a ton of home runs in his career, but we got him out on a couple pop outs and ground outs and got the job done.”

The final score indicates a Knights rout, but those two at-bats changed the game. If Barry comes through, the Bengals take a first-inning lead and extend it in the third.

“Every time I tried making something happen I got the end of the bat because I was flying open,” Barry said. “It came to the conclusion that I grounded out, flew out, everything.”

Peters wound up being chased by the Bengals after a long fourth in which Oak Forest took a brief 2-1 lead.

“I knew he was a big hitter, I knew I had to be careful with him so I was pitching low, outside, and my ball moves a lot,” Peters said. “He couldn’t get quite on it. I got him out pretty easily. There were some other guys that I couldn’t get out so easily, but overall it was great.

“I was trying to get him out. I knew if I had to I could let him on or bean him if I needed to, but why not go for it? I knew our hitters would be coming up huge.”

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