A lot of famous sporting moments earn the nickname, “The Miracle at” so-and-so or the such-and-such “Miracle.” Thursday at the Wintrust Crossroads Sports Complex in New Lenox, the miracle was that the WJOL Baseball Tournament got played at all.

Rain and lightening were on and off throughout the day Thursday and that had been expected all week. The Chicago White Sox even canceled their planned home game against the Toronto Blue Jays 24 hours in advance.

Thursday’s baseball games had a few delays, but they remained on the schedule until pockets of good weather became available. It didn’t seem likely, but the games all got played.

The way things went, perhaps no team was more grateful for that than the Joliet West Tigers, who got two wins and punched their ticket to the WJOL championship game against Lockport.

The quarterfinal game saw the Tigers beat Lincoln-Way Central on a walk-off RBI single by Andrew Markun to score Luke Featherston in the eighth inning, 2-1. The second win was another tight one, but the Tigers got it all the same, 5-4 over previously unbeaten Minooka.

“It’s nice to get two wins on a windy day like this and they were gritty wins,” Tigers coach John Karczewski said. “We didn’t play our best baseball today, but we grinded. I don’t know how we won these two games, but someone we found a way to get it done.

“These boys didn’t quit. They made plays when they needed to, they threw pitches when they needed to, we just found a way. We’re excited to play for the championship.”

It’s always a team effort and a lot of players had a hand in both wins for the Tigers, but surely a game ball will be handed out to Keegan Schwarting. He threw eight innings in the first game, striking out seven batters while allowing just two hits and one earned run.

Then, Schwarting went out in the second game and made a huge play at the plate. With the game tied at 3-3 in the top of the sixth, Schwarting picked up a two-run RBI single to score Michael Murphy and Daniel Lukancic to give the Tigers their five runs for the night.

Karczewski credited the junior for his effort in both contests.

“He showed some toughness,” Karczewski said. “He’s a funny, fun-loving kid who stepped up big for us today. Hats off to him.”

Schwarting praised his teammates while saying their connection with one another has helped them get off to a 5-2-1 start to the season.

“I’ve always just done my stuff on the mound,” Schwarting said. “I know I’ve got a good defense behind me. A lot of seniors made plays and I just did what I do best. ... We’re all so close as a team and we just play for each other.”

Joliet West had 10 hits as a team in the Minooka game, including two each by Sean Hogan, Bobby Malinowski, Murphy and Henry Young.

Minooka (6-1) got nine hits with two each coming from Landon Currie, Brady Kozlowski and Howie Porath. Coach Jeff Petrovic said he was mainly grateful that the games got played at all.

“I really appreciate WJOL and their effort for doing this,” Petrovic said. “It took a lot to put this on and thanks to (host) Providence for doing a lot of legwork as well.

“Did we want to win and play in the bigger game on Saturday? Sure, but this is our first loss of the season. It hurts a ton but it always happens to everyone.”