GARY | Kankakee Valley star Zach DeFries and the rest of the Kougars had a busy Saturday.
After dismantling Merrillville 15-6 in the morning, K.V. came into the middle game of the RailCats High School Challenge and did the exact same thing to an out-manned Lake Station, winning 9-4. In the late game, Hammond Academy used a walk-off to top Calumet 7-6.
DeFries started the offense for the Kougars (7-4), with a triple in his team's first at-bat and subsequently scoring on a groundout by second baseman Josh Monk.
It was his second triple of the day and his seventh overall, which has already broken the school record of five in one season.
"I'm pretty tired," DeFries admitted. "We have been struggling a little bit offensively and all it took was one big inning in both games to get us going."
K.V. starter Kevin Cooper went the distance, scattering seven hits while striking out eight.
"Our starting pitchers have thrown a few more innings lately and Kevin threw well for us," K.V. coach Doug Greenlee said.
Lake Station (3-7) responded with two in its half of the seventh thanks to two Kougars errors.
In the final game of the tripleheader, Calumet rallied back from three runs down and a dominating performance from Hammond Academy pitcher Cody Glass, before Humberto Prado delivered a walk-off two-run single to lift HAC.
Glass struck out 11 in five innings and added a two-run single in the third, but the Warriors answered with four big runs in their half of the sixth.
After letting two straight batters reach base, Glass was pulled in favor of Joshua Gomez, but Gomes gave up a two-run single to center fielder TJ Thomas.
The Hawks had a little magic left after Prado rocketed one over the head of right fielder Josh Borst with the bases loaded for the win.
Hammond Academy (3-1) got two hits, two RBIs and a run from Glass.
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