More than 500 individual donations were recorded in the 2025 fund-raising campaign to help support Evanston’s baseball program that concluded last week.
And the Wildkits are certainly giving fans their money’s worth --- even though the final outcomes aren’t always what they have in mind.
In a second straight matchup against rival New Trier that went down to the wire Tuesday at ETHS, the Wildkits pushed the potential tying run to third base with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning but couldn’t deliver any more late heroics in a 5-4 loss to the Trevians.
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It marked the seventh one-run loss of the season for the Kits, now 9-9 overall and 1-4 in Central Suburban League South division play. The two teams will play the final game of the series on Thursday at Evanston.
New Trier pitchers Rik Conniff and Nick Bailey were working on a combined no-hitter when Zach Bachochin socked a home run over the left field wall with two outs in the sixth inning. That was the only hit on the day for the home team, which entered the contest with a team batting average of .281 but is also averaging about nine strikeouts per game.
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And while the Trevians (13-5-1 overall, 2-3 CSL South) turned things around on the mound 24 hours after losing another game decided in the bottom of the seventh on Monday with less than mediocre pitching, the winners displayed shoddy defense for the second day in a row and committed three errors when the Kits did manage to put the ball in play.
To paraphrase a famous New York Yankee catcher, it’s never over until it’s over when the Wildkits come to play. And they made things more than interesting with darkness approaching in the bottom of the seventh on Tuesday.
Reliever Bailey, owner of possibly the nastiest stuff on the New Trier staff, opened the seventh by hitting Evanston’s Garrett Hagerty on the elbow. Pinch-runner Dion Lane Jr. promptly stole second base, and Clay Lemmon’s sacrifice bunt sent the tying run to third.
Back at the top of the order, the Wildkit faithful anticipated at least a tie game --- and maybe a come-from-behind, improbable win. But Bailey retired Tate Schroeder on a 3-2 check swing for the second out. And, after Owen Vander Velde battled his way to a full-count walk, the rally died when Aaron Shalin bounced out to second to end the game.
Bailey and Conniff combined for 11 strikeouts and the only earned run was Bachochin’s first varsity homer against Bailey in the sixth. ETHS scratched out a pair of unearned runs in the fifth after a walk to Colin Vander Velde and Hagerty was hit by a pitch for the first time.
With one out, Schroeder rapped a routine grounder to the right side of the infield. New Trier second baseman C.J. Donnelly threw the ball away at first, scoring Vander Velde, and Hagerty came all the way around on a subsequent throw from Bailey that would up in center field.
New Trier solved Evanston starter Owen Vander Velde for a run in the second when designated hitter Keenan Donaldson homered to left. Donaldson sparked another rally in the fifth with a leadoff single and before Vander Velde could work out of trouble, the Trevs tallied three more runs thanks to a pair of wild pitches, a passed ball, a balk and a double by Mason Bloom.
Donaldson’s RBI single in the sixth produced what turned out to be the winning run after Will Molitor replaced Vander Velde on the mound for the Kits.
