Early last season, Burlington Central’s AJ Payton started turning the corner in terms of his approach at the plate.
Ever since then, the senior first baseman has maintained that new approach while developing into a lethal No. 3 hitter for the Rockets.
The experience of being a four-year varsity starter has helped him with that development.
“It’s nice because you’re 100% used to the kind of pitching you’re going to be seeing,” Payton said. “You just know certain things about teams.
“It’s just nice to have that experience under your belt and it’s nice to be able to share it with the younger guys.”
Payton felt young again Monday, breaking out of a mini-slump by going 3-for-5 with thee runs, a double, a home run and five RBIs in a 12-2 Fox Valley Conference win at Dundee-Crown.
Brady Gilroy went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs for Burlington Central (6-2). He also earned the pitching win, striking out eight in 3 1/3 innings. Jake Johnson added two doubles.
Ryan Pierce had two doubles for Dundee-Crown (3-9, 0-3).
A couple of weeks into Payton’s junior season, Burlington Central coach Kyle Nelson noticed the improvement in his approach.
“It’s been really awesome to watch him mature as a hitter, as a person,” Nelson said. “The quality of his at-bats has just gotten so much better. He’s laying off of pitches he was swinging at.
“He’s taking advantage of fastballs in the middle of the plate.”
Payton has been hitting the ball hard lately. He just hadn’t been able to get the ball over the fence.
That was the case early Monday. He smacked the ball off the left-field fence for an RBI double in the first inning and followed with a long single off the base of the center-field fence in the second for another RBI.
Finally, in the seventh, Payton belted a three-run homer to right-center, getting rewarded for his hard contact.
“It felt good, especially after hitting one off the top of the wall, one off the bottom of the wall,” Payton said. “It was nice to finally get it over.
“I think it was just jumping on the first-pitch fastball, getting my head into the game a little bit. I’ve been letting some things go lately, and really I worked on swinging as soon as I got in there.”
Payton is in an advantageous spot in the order, with Michael Person and Gilroy getting on base ahead of him. Johnson protects him in the cleanup spot. That leads to maximum production.
“I love how anyone in our top five can be our best hitter in any game,” Payton said. “When we’re all hitting, we make life really tough on pitchers. That’s really our goal.”
It’s exactly what the Rockets did against the Chargers, jumping to a 9-0 lead after three innings.
“You don’t get any breaks,” Dundee-Crown coach Patrick Conlin said. “I think that’s the reality of this conference. They fit right in with that. There are no breaks in their lineup. They can swing it.”
In the seventh, Person walked and Gilroy singled ahead of Payton’s blast to right-center.
“He’s been slumping a little bit,” Nelson said of Payton. “He’s hit balls hard that just haven’t fallen in. He’s hit for four years now pretty consistently, so I had confidence he was going to come back.
“(Monday) was a huge day for him.”
Payton is ready to get into the meat of the Fox Valley Conference schedule with this deep lineup.
“I’m really excited to show teams in the conference that we can get it done against anybody,” he said.
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
