Baseball: Minooka holds off Plainfield East

MINOOKA – Neither team played its best game Monday in a Southwest Prairie Conference matchup between Minooka and defending Class 4A state champ Plainfield East, but that didn’t stop it from being exciting.

Minooka (9-2, 2-1 SPC) erased a 1-0 deficit by putting three runs across in the bottom of the fourth inning and one each in the fifth and sixth. Those later runs proved to be important as Plainfield East had the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second when the final out was made in the Indians’ 5-4 victory.

East (5-5, 1-2) had some chances early to get to Minooka ace Ryan Anderson, but Anderson pitched out of a few jams. In the top of the first, Anderson struck out the leadoff hitter, but the ball got away and Brady Louck reached first. Louck then stole second and went to third on an infield single by Christian Mitchelle (3 for 4, double, two RBIs). Losing pitcher Aden Auklnd then reached on an infield single between first and second, driving in Louck and giving the Bengals the bases loaded with one out and a run in. Anderson, however, struck out the next hitter and induced a grounder to second to get out of the inning.

In the top of the third, Mitchelle reached on a one-out infield single, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch, but Anderson got a grounder to a pulled-in Caleb Parker at shortstop and ended the inning with a strikeout.

Anderson went six innings, allowing six hits and two runs, one of which was earned, while striking out seven and walking three.

“Ryan didn’t have his best stuff today,” Minooka coach Jeff Petrovic said. “But he did what a real No. 1 starter does. He held them to two runs over six innings without his best stuff.”

Minooka, which was held to two hits over the first three innings, got its offense going in the fourth. Mitch Thomas led off the inning with a double down the right field line and scored on a single to left by Mike Murphy. Andrew Mack grounded to third, moving Murphy to second, and a single to right by Sully Minor put Murphy at third. A wild pitch scored Murphy and moved Minor to second, and another wild pitch moved Minor to third. Nolan Zurawski then singled off Aukland’s glove to score Minor for a 3-1 Minooka lead.

The Indians got another run in the bottom of the fifth when Ivan Dahlberg walked with one out, stole second and went to third on a single to center by Thomas. A sacrifice fly to left by Murphy brought home Dalhlberg. In the sixth, Minor led off with a single and stole second. An out later, an error on a ball hit by Brock Lange moved Minor to third. A liner by Andrew Forillo went off the shortstop’s glove, and Lange was forced at second. The throw to double up Forillo was wild, and Minor came home to make it 5-2.

“I am never really looking for a certain pitch,” Thomas said about his rally-starting double. “I just like to go where the pitch is. I was glad to start that inning off and set a good tone.

“If feels really good to beat the defending state champs. It will give us confidence, which we will need because our conference games are all going to be tough.”

Plainfield East mounted a rally in the top of the seventh off Minooka reliever Jack Otis. With one out, Louck reached on an error and Nathan Rudd (2 for 4, RBI) singled. Mitchelle then doubled to left-center, scoring both Louck and Rudd. A wild pitch sent Mitchelle to third before Aukland walked. Otis then struck out Nate Mole for the second out. After Aukland stole second, Otis struck out Josh Keller to end the game.

“We didn’t play well today,” Petrovic said. “It’s baseball, and a win is a win, but there were some little things that we didn’t do well today that we normally do. That said, if someone would have told me before the season that we would be 9-2, I would have taken that in a heartbeat. It doesn’t feel like we have played our best baseball, but we’ll get there.

“We have been scoring a lot of runs, but we didn’t today. And our small ball, which is what we are good at, wasn’t there today. We’ll fix it, and we know our best baseball is still ahead of us.”

Petrovic also praised the defensive work of Parker at shortstop and Dahlberg behind the plate.

“We couldn’t get out of our own way today,” East coach Adam O’Reel said. “Aden Aukland pitched well enough to win. The thing with us right now is that we have to avoid giving teams crooked numbers in an inning. And we struck out nine times today. A lot of those were with runners in scoring position. Until Christian’s double in the last inning, we didn’t get any big hits to put any pressure on them. And when you play Minooka, you have to capitalize on every opportunity.”