Lockport coach Scott Malinowski admits he wasn’t sold on his team’s offensive potential before the season.

His team, however, is doing its part to convince their coach that his assessment might not have been correct.

The Porters put up two strong offensive performances during the WJOL Don Ladas Memorial Tournament on Thursday, with wins over Plainfield East in the quarterfinals and then a resounding 11-3 victory over Providence in the semifinals to earn a spot in the tournament’s title game.

Lockport (5-4) will face Joliet West, a 5-4 winner over Minooka in the tournament’s other semifinal, in the title game about 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Duly Health and Care Field in Joliet.

“I’d say going into the year that one of our question marks would have been our bats, but so far, so good,” Malinowski said. “I don’t want to jinx us, and even though I think we had chances to break it open a little bit earlier, but that’s baseball.”

The Porters wasted no time flexing their muscle in the semifinals, scoring five runs in the opening inning.

That was done with a shuffled lineup from what the Porters intended. After Adam Kozak led off the game by coaxing a walk, Brandon Mecher, who was moved up four spots in the lineup just minutes before the game, rapped a double. Later, newly inserted No. 8 hitter Frank Covelli would drive in two runs with a single.

“One of the big things we preach in our program is getting things done early,” Mecher said. “We came out ready to hit.”

Lockport added two more runs in the second with Drew Satunas delivering an RBI single for the second consecutive inning and a Zack Skrzypicz sacrifice fly stretching Lockport’s lead to 7-1.

Providence got two runs back in its half of the third, but the Celtics didn’t get any closer, and the proposition of a comeback was almost completely squelched when Lockport tacked on four runs in its half of the fifth, the big knock coming off the bat of Mecher with a two-run, two-out double.

Providence tried to make one last push. The Celtics finally mounted a rally off Lockport starter Emmett O’Keefe, loading the bases with none out in the sixth inning.

But O’Keefe’s effort got a big lift from Ryan O’Neal, who came in from the bullpen and got out of that mess unscathed with a pair of strikeouts and a pop out. O’Neal would close out the game with a third strikeout in the seventh, allowing just one walk over a two-inning stint.

“Those guys are juniors, and they’ve had earlier appearances this year, but this one probably means a little more to these guys,” Malinowski said. “This was kind of a welcome to the big leagues moment for them, and I’d say they passed with flying colors.”

Providence 7, Joliet Catholic 5

There aren’t a lot of similarities from the Providence roster of the past two years, where the Celtics won a combined 60 games and a Class 4A State Title in 2024.

A lot of new faces have replaced those who seemed to provide the foundation for Providence for multiple years.

But what hasn’t changed despite the new faces is the program’s ability to grind out wins when opportunities present themselves.

That was on display again Thursday as Providence collected a 7-5 win over Joliet Catholic in the quarterfinal round of the WJOL/Don Ladas Memorial Tournament.

“Last year we had a lot of three- and four-year varsity kids, and you know, not having the Infelices, the O’Donnell’s and the Eggers, you miss them, but they left a legacy for these guys to follow,” Providence coach Mark Smith said. “But we’re getting back to coaching again, because there wasn’t that much to do; we had all those returners coming back and, hey, knew what they had to do.

“And now it’s a whole new thing. So we get to start over, and we’re actually kind of enjoying this.”

Joliet Catholic (2-5) scratched out an unearned run in the top of the third inning, but Providence quickly countered and took control of the game with a five-run third inning.

Easton Eggert and Bryce Tencza both came up with two-run doubles in the frame for the Celtics as Providence sent 10 batters to the plate in the crucial inning.

None of that would have been possible without the efforts of Providence’s table setters at the top of the order. Sammy Atkinson, one of the few players on the Providence roster with significant experience, led the attack with three hits.

“We’re definitely not the team we had last year,” Atkinson said. “We’re super talented, but you know, we’re all about grit this year. Grinding our teeth, and you know a lot of them are going to come down the wire, and it is going to be about whether or not we can pull through or not.”

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