Lockport and Lincoln-Way Central had to wait a little bit longer than anticipated to get their baseball game played this week after it was rained out Monday.

It was well worth the wait.

Well, for Lockport at least.

The Porters and the Knights played a fun one Tuesday evening that saw the Porters come from behind twice and ultimately secure a 5-3 victory on their home field.

Lockport (15-7) had to overcome some miscues throughout the game. Two of the Knights’ runs were scored on errors, and they nearly tied things up in the top of the seventh after sending a runner to third with no outs.

Third basemen Jack Schiek made a pair of magnificent throws to first on back-to-back at-bats to record two outs while holding the runner at third. The Porters got the third out and got out with the win right after.

“We’ve had (a lot of) battle in us all season,” coach Scott Malinowski said. “Give our guys credit on that. We fight to the very end and we usually do a good job of responding when the other team scores. I’d just like to see us clean it up.

“I feel like all three of the runs we scored we kind of gave to them with walks and errors. There were some sloppy defensive plays, so those are things we have to shore up as we move forward.”

Malinowski added, though, that the throws by Schiek were critical and the kind of plays he’s hoping the Porters can make moving forward.

“Jack’s been really big for us on both sides of the field for us,” Malinowski said. “Hitting in the middle of the lineup he’s had several big hits, drove in runs. ... This year we feel like he’s given us a really good infield defensive presence. Those were some big-time, high-pressure plays he made look easy.”

Lincoln-Way Central got on the board first with Luke Tingley scoring on an error in the top of the first. Conor McCabe scored on an error the same inning to give the Knights a 2-0 lead.

The bottom of the first started great for Lockport. The Porters loaded the bases after their first three at-bats, and Adam Kozak’s RBI single scored Kaden O’Leary to cut the deficit to one. Two at bats later, Zack Skyrzypiec was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to send Connor Ryan home and tie the game.

After a scoreless second inning, the Knights pulled back ahead when Christian Lovingfoss’ RBI single scored McCabe to put Lincoln-Way Central up 3-2.

The Porters tied things up in the bottom of the fourth when Nick Moerman slammed a lead-off homer on the first pitch, making it 3-3. It only got better from there for Lockport as Kozak’s RBI single scored O’Leary and Schiek sent Kozak home on a single in the next at-bat. The score was 5-3 after that.

Credit the knights for nearly staging a comeback of their own in the seventh. Tyler Arnold reached first on a throwing error and advanced to third the next at bat on a wild pitch. Schiek’s timely throws managed to get the next two outs, and the third out came on a groundout to second.

Austin Winge gave up just one hit with eight strikeouts in five innings on the mound for Lockport. Kozak went 2 for 4 with two RBIs to lead the bats, which compiled 10 total hits.

“We never put our heads down,” Kozak said. “We just always have so much relentlessness and we just keep going. We never stop.”

Lincoln-Way Central (11-8) got five combined strikeouts from Owen Novak and Nolan Bartkus, but the bats were unable to generate much offense on the day.

“We’ve got to put everything behind us and show up ready to play tomorrow,” coach Ryan Kutt said. “We’ve got a tough game at Marist tomorrow. There’s a lot of stuff we have to continuously get better on. I thought we played a clean game defensively, but we struggled with quality at bats.”