Lincoln-Way East’s offense erupts late to beat Joliet West

JOLIET – MJ Schley and the Lincoln-Way East Griffins weren’t really that concerned as the zeros began to stack up on the scoreboard in its Class 4A Joliet West Regional final against the host school Saturday.

They’d been there before.

Armed with one of the area’s deepest and most talented pitching staffs, Lincoln-Way East has found itself in more than a few low-scoring games this year.

So with the contest scoreless heading into the bottom of the fifth, Schley sparked an enormous rally with a single that was only the Griffins’ third hit of the day.

They’d have four more after that and five runs to go with them as Lincoln-Way East earned a 5-1 victory.

Lincoln-Way East (27-10) will play Lincoln-Way Central in the Lincoln-Way West Sectional semifinals at 4 p.m. Wednesday. After starting its season with a 2-11 season mark, Joliet West finished 19-17.

“The energy was always high,” Schley said. “I think we never had a doubt we were going to win this game.”

Schley’s confidence aside, the outcome was very much in doubt until the bottom of the fifth. Lincoln-Way East managed two hits in the bottom of the first, but Joliet West starter Ryan Sobun, who was fantastic until tiring in the sixth, got out of the jam and promptly wouldn’t allow another hit for the next three innings.

Lincoln-Way East’s pitching was even more impressive. Flame-throwing left-hander Jack Bauer got the nod to start and after inducing a groundout to lead off the game, he’d promptly strike eight of the next nine batters he’d face before reaching his program-instituted pitch count after throwing two pitches in the top of the fourth. Bauer struck out eight in three scoreless, hitless innings.

Jack Tamer, who has become accustomed to the “follower” role behind Bauer was nearly as good as his highly-touted teammate.

Tamer carried the combined no-hitter into the sixth inning when Payton Barbarek legged out an infield hit to give Joliet West its second baserunner of the day.

“Basically I felt pretty good. It was all hitting pretty well,” Tamer said. “I felt it slowing down a little bit in the end, but I had a job to do and I did it.”

Even as the Griffins continued to stack up strings of outs, it was beginning to become a concern whether or not they’d be able to get that stellar pitching just a little bit of run support.

Schley started the pivotal fifth inning with a single. Then after a flyout, Evan Riiff also connected for a single. Moments later, Schley and Riiff would engineer a successful double steal.

At the time that seemed extremely pivotal as Schley getting into third raised the possibility of a sacrifice fly to plate the first run of the game, which Casey Mikrut promptly delivered.

“When we play good programs, we know it is going to be a grind from inning one to inning seven,” Lincoln-Way East coach John McCarthy said. “I just felt like if we just kept pressure on him at some point we were going to find a way to score. And that was a huge stolen base for MJ getting to third on that stolen base.”

Lincoln-Way East then promptly got a trio of two-out hits from Jake Newman, Cooper Johnson and Charlie Cosich to balloon the lead to 5-0.

Joliet West did mount a serious challenge in its half of the seventh, though, getting hits from Nate Consalvo and Sean Hogan before pinch-hitter Mark Spoto ripped an RBI double to account for the Tigers’ lone run of the game.

Tamer locked back in however, retiring the final two batters to secure the Griffins place in the sectional.