In the postseason, every run matters.

That certainly held true Wednesday in the first semifinal at the Class 4A Lockport Sectional as Downers Grove North used a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh to provide just enough cushion for a 7-6 win over Lockport. The win advances the Trojans to the championship game Saturday at 11 a.m. against Naperville Central.

Downers North led 5-4 entering the top of the seventh. With one out, Oliver Gibson reached on an error and Rhys Dominow followed with an RBI double to right. After Jack Romsey was hit by a pitch, Grant Fordonski singled to score Dominow and put the Trojans ahead, 7-4.

And, with Duke commit Colin Doyle on the mound, it seemed to be just the thing Downers North needed.

Turns out, they needed both runs.

Lockport refused to go quietly from its home field and gave the Downers Grove North fans plenty to worry about. With one out, Adam Kozak (3 for 4, 2B, RBI) laced a single off the second baseman’s glove. Kozak’s at-bat featured four foul balls with two strikes and pushed Doyle’s pitch count over the limit as he gave way to AJ Myers.

Drew Satunas greeted Myers with a double to right to put runners on second and third. Jack Schiek hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Kozak and Kaden O’Leary singled to score courtesy runner Jake Manzo to bring the Porters to within 7-6. Myers then induced a fly ball to right to end it.

“Just a gutsy performance by everyone today,” said Doyle, who struck out 11 in 6⅓ innings while allowing five hits. “When I hit my pitch limit, I have all the confidence in the world in AJ coming in and getting the job done. He’s been doing that all year.

“Those runs in the seventh were huge. It made me relax a lot more having a three-run lead than a one-run lead, and it turned out we needed all those runs. I have to give a shoutout to my teammates for coming through with the big hits.”

One of the players coming through was Trojan No. 9 hitter Emilio Gandarilla, who was 2 for 4 with a run scored. He also hit the ball that scored Romsey on an error in the second that opened the scoring.

“It felt really good to kind of spark the team,” Gandarilla said. “I had kind of a down year, but coaches tell us that in the postseason, our record starts over at 0-0, so my attitude is that my stats start fresh, too. It doesn’t matter what happened before. What matters is what happens from now on. We’re not ready for the season to be over.

“We’ve had our ups and downs, but I love these guys. They say there is no ‘I’ in team, and these guys take that to heart. Plus, when Colin is pitching, we know the other team isn’t going to score much so it takes pressure off the offense.”

The Trojans put up four runs in the top of the fourth to take a 5-0 lead, with Gibson delivering a two-run single. Lockport, though, answered with one in the bottom of the fourth and three more in the bottom of the fifth, getting RBIs from Kozak, Satunas and Schiek in the frame.

“These guys never gave up all year and they battled to the end tonight,” Lockport coach Scott Malinowski said. “I am very proud of the season they had.”

Naperville Central 2, Hinsdale Central 0: The Red Devils mustered just six hits against Naperville Central’s Grant Umbright, who also struck out 10 in the shutout. Wes Novotney went 2 for 3 to lead the Hinsdale Central offense.

“We knew coming in that we were going to see a very good pitcher, and Umbright didn’t disappoint,” Hinsdale Central coach Jason Ziemer said “He was touching 90 and throwing three pitches for strikes.

“We had a couple of chances, but usually when we got runners on, it was with two outs and we couldn’t get our running game going, which is a big part of our offense. But, our guys had a great season. The difference today was that they took advantage of their opportunities more than we did.”