Libertyville junior pitcher Kaden Butt seized his opportunity and ran with it.
When the season started, the defending state champion Wildcats weren’t counting on Butt to pitch a lot. But he has changed that in the span of three months.
“At the beginning of the season, I was at the bottom of the roster, but I got a couple of outings early that opened my coaches’ eyes to me,” Butt said. “I wasn’t really expecting much, so it’s great that I’ve come out and kept performing. I worked from there and got a bunch more innings.”
Butt’s innings in the Class 4A Libertyville Sectional championship game on Saturday were his most important by far.
Making his fifth varsity start, Butt allowed one run on three hits and struck out five in 5 ⅓ innings to lead the top-seeded Wildcats to a 4-1 win over second-seeded Warren.
“When they told me I was starting, I was ready,” he said. “I’ve been preparing for this all year, and I was excited to go out and pitch. I was pumped that they had confidence in me, and I was ready to go out there and show them I could do it.”
Butt certainly delivered for the Wildcats (28-10-1), who will play Lane Tech (33-6) in the Schaumburg Supersectional at Wintrust Field at 7:30 p.m. Monday. Butt improved to 3-1 with a 2.40 ERA over 38 innings.
“He’s been throwing well all year,” Libertyville junior catcher Ryan Wilberding said. “Nobody really thought he’d pitch as much as he has, and he’s risen to the occasion. I’m just telling him to trust his stuff. We have a good defense behind him, and he needs to trust what he can do and see what happens.
“He did really well. I’m proud of him.”
Wilberding, a Marshall recruit who missed much of the regular season after suffering a broken bone in his right wrist, provided all the run support that Butt and junior right-handed reliever Aksel McKnight needed when he hit a grand slam, his sixth home run of the season, in the third inning.
Warren (24-11), which was trying to win its first sectional title, elected to walk senior first baseman Braden Tolzien, who bats left-handed, and face Wilberding, a right-handed batter who had struck out against senior right-hander Braylan McCarthy in the first inning.
“I kind of took it personally,” Wilberding said. “In the back of my head, I was like, ‘Let’s make it hurt,’ and I made it hurt. I couldn’t have hit that ball any better.”
McCarthy got a run back when he hit an RBI double off Butt in the sixth. But McKnight shut the Blue Devils down over the final 1 ⅔ innings.
Butt, who might not have pitched Saturday if senior left-hander Nico Harper had not suffered a shoulder injury in the playoff opener, traces the beginning of his ascent to a game against Lake Zurich in the second week of April. Butt pitched 5 ⅔ innings of quality relief.
“I’ve had a couple of big outings this year, some in sort of rough situations,” he said. “But I like to fight through adversity, partly because I know my defense has my back and I can let them work.”
That was part of the script on Saturday, when Butt walked six and had to get out of some jams. It began in the first inning, when he walked two of the first three batters.
But Libertyville senior shortstop Trevor Wallace fired a strike to Wilberding at home to cut down a runner attempting to steal after McCarthy had broken from first.
“I felt in the first inning that I was a little jittery,” Butt said. “I was a little wild. But I got it together and finished well. When I get guys on, I trust my defense that they’ll get them off. That was a big weight off the shoulders when I realized I could do it and keep going out there.”
The defense behind Butt was a factor in the third, fourth and fifth innings as well.
“He was in trouble a little bit, walked a couple of leadoff guys, so we had McKnight ready a couple of times, but he pitched out of it,” Libertyville coach Matt Thompson said.
“He started the year as a guy we thought would get very limited innings. But from day one, those limited innings turned into more consistent innings because of what he did. He did what he did today all year.”
Butt, who also plays fullback and linebacker for Libertyville’s football team, has pitched so well this season that he’s considering both baseball and football in college. The sectional final was only the latest example.
“I love the confidence the coaches had in me coming out here,” he said. “It’s a big game, but I was expecting to do well. I came out and did my best.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.
