Lincoln-Way East pitching holds L-W Central to 1 hit; Providence wins on Enzo Infelice’s walk-off homer

NEW LENOX – Considering the performances the Lincoln-Way East pitching staff typically puts forth, it shouldn’t be at all surprising the Griffins got another gem in Thursday’s sectional semifinal against Lincoln-Way Central.

But even by Griffins standards, this one was pretty darn impressive.

Sophomore Cooper Johnson and Jack Tamer combined to hold the Knights to one hit, and Lincoln-Way East scratched out all of its offense in one robust inning to collect a 3-0 win and advance to Saturday’s Class 4A Lincoln-Way West Sectional final.

Lincoln-Way East will play Providence at 11 a.m. after Providence defeated Stagg 2-1 in the second game Thursday night.

Lincoln-Way East 3, Lincoln-Way Central 0: “Our pitching and defense have been one of our important tools to have,” Lincoln-Way East coach John McCarthy said. “For us to get ahead, it really eased us a little bit. But we’re just used to tight games and our pitching and defense have really carried us.”

The game was moving along swiftly early with all but one of the first 10 batters being retired, but Lincoln-Way East (28-10) put together easily the most productive offensive inning in the contest in its half of the seventh.

The Griffins strung together five hits in the inning, none more important than Danny Mackey’s two-out single with a full count that went right through the box to plate Johnson and MJ Schley, both of whom singled.

“That’s exactly what I’ve been working on. I’m coming off illness, and I haven’t been swinging it well,” Mackey said, “but I’ve just been preparing for this every day and getting extra swings in.”

It looked as if the Griffins might have missed a golden opportunity to break the game wide open, but the 2-0 lead looked like a massive mountain for Lincoln-Way Central (21-11) to try to climb against Johnson, who seemed to be doing whatever he wanted despite not having pitched in several weeks because of an elbow ailment.

“It was a lot of off-speed today and just trying to locate everything,” Johnson said, “not trying to overdo it. I’ve got players that will make plays behind me.”

The Griffins certainly made play after play behind Johnson, but his efficiency and attack plan allowed him to throw only 50 pitches in five innings. He allowed no hits, and the only batter to reach base on him came in the second inning when Luke Tingley reached on an error.

“I just went in there with confidence like I always do,” Johnson said. “And I felt the way I always do.”

Johnson’s low pitch count when he was removed was in part the reason he was removed while throwing an active no-hitter. It also leaves the door open for Johnson to be available should the Griffins advance deeper in the postseason.

“We didn’t know exactly how far he was going to be able to take us,” McCarthy said. “The last thing we wanted to do was complicate any injuries, so we wanted to keep it short.”

Johnson willingly turned the ball over to Jack Tamer, who walked Lincoln-Way Central pinch hitter Austin Welsh. That was later washed off the scoresheet with a pickoff play.

The no-hitter was denied when Liam Arsich led off the seventh inning with a clean single, but Tamer struck out the next two and induced a groundout to send Lincoln-Way East to the sectional finals.

Providence 2, Stagg 1: One of the biggest Cinderella stories of the postseason thus far seemed determined to try to stretch its story a bit farther.

But Providence‘s Enzo Infelice decided he wasn’t going to let the Chargers’ fairy-tale run go any further.

Infelice blasted a two-out homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie and send the Celtics (26-12) into Saturday’s sectional title matchup.

“He had thrown the changeup every time except maybe once,” Infelice said. “And I just started seeing it pretty well the more he threw it, and then eventually he left it up, and I got to one.

“It felt amazing.”

Providence coach Mark Smith wasn’t surprised Infelice delivered.

“Well, we have the best hitter in Illinois, I’ll tell you that much,” Smith said. “We got a couple of guys on in the sixth inning, and I said honestly, ‘Let’s just make sure we get Enzo one more at-bat if we can.’ ”

Stagg, which entered the game with a 10-27 record and surprised Lincoln-Way West in the regional title game last weekend, continued to dart in and out of trouble in the late innings.

Providence loaded the bases in the sixth but was unable to push across the go-ahead run after Stagg scored its only run of the game in the top of the sixth to tie the score.

But other than that one blemish, the combined efforts of Providence pitchers Kasten Goebbert and Dominick Alberico kept Stagg from mounting much of an offensive threat.

“We pitched great, and we played great defense,” Smith said. “We just didn’t get timely hitting until the bottom of the seventh inning.”