On Tuesday afternoon Crystal Lake South traveled to Jacobs for the first of a three-game Fox Valley conference series. Crystal Lake South, took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the second and never looked back, defeating Jacobs by a final score of 7-1.

The biggest blow of the game came off the left-handed bat of Crystal Lake South (19-9) senior Kyle Hetherington, a Rend Lake JC commit. With a man on, in the top of the fifth inning, Hetherington, launched a no-doubt, two-run home run to left-center field. The deep drive broke the game open and gave the Gators of Crystal Lake South a 5-1 lead heading to the bottom of the fifth.

Uncommitted, 2020 LHP Jacob Bimbi, got the start and win on the mound for the Gators. Bimbi, a quick-armed lefty featured a live fastball throughout and kept the Jacobs (14-19) offense at bay after allowing a lone run in the first inning. Bimbi, who went 4.2 innings, scattering two hits, striking out five and walking five, sat 83-86 mph, touching 87 a couple of times. Both offspeed offerings were inconsistent throughout but his breaking ball flashed above-average action and late bite at times. Bimbi’s biggest threat after the first inning, came when Jacobs had runners on second and third, with one out, in the bottom of the fourth inning. At the time, Crystal Lake South had a 3-1 lead and after a brief mound visit by coach Brian Bogda, Bimbi made his clutchest pitches of the game. Bimbi proceeded to induce a weak pop up to right field that forced the runner at third to hold tight and then struck out the final batter of the inning on an 85 mph fastball up in the zone, preserving the two-run lead.

IL: @CLSBaseball leads @HDJBaseball 3-1, T5. Jacobs had 2nd & 3rd w/ one out in B4 but LHP Jacob Bimbi gets an F9 and K to get out of it unscathed. Last pitch of the frame was 85....video below pic.twitter.com/p5fORcDoEo

— PBR Illinois (@PBRIllinois) May 14, 2019

The Gators racked up twelve hits on the afternoon with eight of the nine starters chipping in with at least one. Senior Patrick Fischer, junior Kyle Green and junior Ian Gorken each had two apiece. Fischer and Green finished with identical stat lines; 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Gorken went 2-for-3 with a double, two RBI, a run scored and a stolen base.

Sophomore RHP Will Frisch came in to relieve Bimbi and threw the final 2.1 innings. Frisch allowed one hit, no runs, struck out two and walked one. Frisch and Bimbi combined to three hit Jacobs.

Christian Scianna (Oakton JC commit), Bryan Belo and Daniel Klein (McHenry County JC commit) collected the three hits on the day for Jacobs.

Crystal Lake South has now won eight straight games and will look to keep it going on Wednesday at home against Jacobs in game two of the series.

For more in-depth notes from this game - and all other games that we cover - visit the Illinois Scout Blog.

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