Lincoln-Way West baseball edges Lincoln-Way Central in critical Southwest Suburban Conference battle

NEW LENOX – Beating a crosstown rival is always nice, sure.

But Friday’s baseball game at Lincoln-Way Central between the host Knights and Lincoln-Way West was about far more than that.

Lincoln-Way West’s win over Central on Tuesday pulled the Warriors within striking distance of the Knights in the Southwest Suburban Conference standings. More critically, a four-game losing streak by Lincoln-Way East left Central tied for first place and West just on their heels.

The stakes were high, and both teams played like it in a thrilling contest. In the end, though, the Warriors had just a bit more in the tank as they got the 6-4 win.

The victory moved Lincoln-Way West to 22-7 overall, but more importantly they’re now 11-5 in conference play. Lincoln-Way Central is 15-10 but 10-4 in conference play. Lincoln-Way East’s loss to Lockport on Friday puts them at 10-4 in Southwest Suburban play.

To summarize, things are awfully crowded up top with just a few weeks to go in the regular season.

“At this point of the season, you always talk to your team about adversity and controlling what you can control,” Warriors coach Jake Zajc said. “I thought we did a good job with that. ... Our guys did enough to get the job done, and that’s what we’re going to continue to talk about as we get to the end of the season.”

Carson Paulus led the offense for the Warriors with a 2 for 3 day, including two RBIs and a run scored.

“It’s very important (to win these type of games),” Paulus said. “In this conference it’s never easy in the seventh inning or anything. It’s just about keeping your mind right and keeping focused on the game.”

Most of the offense came in the early-going.

The Warriors took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, but Shawn Mowry’s RBI single to score Liam Arsich and Connor McCabe cut the deficit to one in the bottom of the inning. Paulus’ two-out triple put him in position to score on a throwing error the same play in the second and increase the lead to two.

Paulus came up huge again in the fourth when his double scored Kaden Kopacz and Tyler Bartley to move it to 6-2. Ryan Arnold and Filippo Baratta scored on an error in the bottom of the same inning for Central to cut it to 6-4.

The game was two outs into the sixth inning when play was paused for 40 minutes due to a wind-driven dust storm. When play resumed, the momentum stayed with the Warriors. While the Knights managed to load the bases in the bottom of the seventh, the Warriors got the final out they needed to wrap things up.

Mowry was 2 for 4 with two RBIs to lead the offense for Lincoln-Way Central. Luke Mensik struck out seven in 4 2/3 innings of work on the mound and only allowed five hits with two runs. However, four errors by the defense resulted in four additional runs, sinking the Knights’ chances.

“We’re getting to that point of the season where you only have so many games left that you can make mistakes and play another day of baseball,” Knights coach Ryan Kutt said. “We have to refine the mistakes that we’ve continuously made over these past couple of weeks. We need to get past it and fix it so when playoffs come around, we have things rolling in the right direction.”

The Warriors’ next contest will be Monday at Herscher. Lincoln-Way Central is at Bradley-Bourbonnais the same day.