It looked like a very promising beginning for the Lincoln-Way East baseball team when Evan Riiff laced a double in the gap to start its showdown matchup with Lockport.

But as far as Porters starting pitcher Trace Schiff was concerned it was only the beginning of the end for the Griffins.

The left-hander was masterful for the Porters (22-7, 13-0), allowing just two hits over six innings. The potent Lincoln-Way East (24-4, 11-2) squad got absolutely no momentum as the Porters claimed an impressive 6-0 victory.

“I tried not to think about it too much,” Schaaf said of the leadoff double. “Go after the next guy and trust in my defense. And know that they were going to need a lot more than that.”

The Griffins may have needed a lot more than that, but they never got close to getting it.

After the double, Schaaf stranded Riiff right where he started after getting a strikeout, a popout and a groundout.

They wouldn’t get another hit until Riiff collected the only other Lincoln-Way East hit with a single in the fifth.

Lockport coach Scott Maliinowski wasn’t the least bit surprised that Schaaf delivered the clutch outing in arguably the Porters’ biggest game of the season.

“He’s just fun to watch pitch on a day like today,” Malinowski said of Schaaf. “The big thing for me, was what I just told him, what I was most impressed with but not surprised because that’s just characteristic of him was that after giving up the leadoff double he’s just the epitome of the calm in the eye of the storm.”

That calm surfaced in the middle of the game, during which at one point Schaaf retired nine batters in order over the third through sixth innings.

And even when he got into a small pinch, his defense seemed to turn in play after play in support of the cause. Specifically, a sixth-inning pick-up by Lockport shortstop Brendan Mecher typified a very sound showing by the Porter defense.

The offense wasn’t abundant for Lockport, but it certainly was timely as Lockport got two runs in each of the first, third and fourth innings. Two of those three scoring frames featured just one hit.

Connor Ryan coaxed a one-out walk in the first inning and after a strikeout, Adam Kozak smashed a triple to plate Ryan with two outs. Kozak would then score moments later on a wild pitch to give the Porters all the offense they’d need in taking a 2-0 lead.

A Drew Satunas RBI double and a sacrifice fly from Jack Schick in the third would push the lead to 4-0 and a fourth inning rally materialized with two outs when five consecutive batters reached on a mix bag of a hit, walks and hit batters that accounted for the final runs of the day.

The win allowed Lockport to inch ever closer to securing the SouthWest Suburban Conference title as it improved its league mark to 13-0. The Porters have three league games remaining, a Friday rematch with Lincoln-Way East followed by a pair of games with Andrew next week. A win in any one of those games would assure no worse than a tie for Lockport.

Not bad for a team that was just 10-7 through its first 17 games. They have now won 13 consecutive games.

“The strength of our schedule just has us so battle tested,” Malinowski said of his team’s second-half surge. “We’ve won in so many different types of ways and we’ve lost in so many different types of ways.

“I feel like we’ve played three, four seasons of games in not even a full season and I think that helps. To the players credit, they’ve learned from it. It’s not like they are forgetting their mistakes and not learning from them.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/the-herald-news/2026/03/07/benet-makes-key-plays-when-it-needs-to-in-topping-bolingbrook/