Baseball: Lockport defeats Minooka, surpasses 20 wins at Strike Out Cancer event

LOCKPORT – Lockport’s baseball team has been hosting its annual Strike Out Cancer event for a decade.

This year’s event was the most meaningful of them all.

As in the past, the Make Your Mark Pediatric Cancer Foundation, in honor of Mark Staehely, was a big part of the day.

But this season another special cause joined the event. That was the CC2 Forever Foundation, which is in memory of Connor Christian.

At the end of June 2021 – less than a month after graduating from Lockport and finishing what would be his final season of baseball – Christian began to experience tingling and numbness in his right foot.

He was told on July 14 that he had a large brain tumor. Christian immediately underwent brain surgery to biopsy the tumor, which subsequently was diagnosed as stage 4 glioblastoma.

Because of complications after his second brain surgery, Christian died surrounded by his family on July 30, 2021 – a little over two weeks from when he was diagnosed, or around a month after he first noticed any symptoms.

His family created the CC2 Forever Foundation to raise awareness and research funds in the fight against glioblastoma. Christian’s presence was felt throughout the day, but especially in the varsity baseball game Saturday night.

That was when Lockport picked up a 16-6 victory over Minooka in six innings under the lights at Flink Field.

Anthony Martinez continued his hot hitting, going 3 for 3 with a walk and six RBI as the Porters (21-3) scored early and often in a game between local powers that have already combined for 40 wins despite poor weather postponing and canceling games.

As with many others on the day, Martinez wore “CC2″ for Christian on the back of his specially-made jersey, which honored someone who has been affected by cancer.

“It was amazing and there was not a better day to do it,” Martinez said of his career-high six RBI to honor Christian. “When I came up to the varsity last season as a sophomore, Connor welcomed me and made me feel like family.

“I was thinking of Connor on all of my hits. He was definitely with me today.”

Christian’s impact could be felt throughout. His father, Gary, threw out the first pitch.

“It was a very fulfilling day in Connor’s memory,” Lockport coach Scott Malinowski said. “He was with us today. He has been with us all year.

“Toughness and selflessness are things that Connor exemplified, and those have been our core values.”

As they have been all season, the Porters were certainly tough at the plate. Lockport had 13 hits in scoring double-digits runs for the 10th time this season. In addition to Martinez, junior leadoff hitter Joey Manzo (four runs) and No. 2 hitter Griffin Brown (three runs) each had three hits apiece and added an RBI. Senior Victor Izquierdo had four RBIs.

“Anthony has been a staple in the 4-hole for us all year,” Malinowski said. “We need a guy like him to provide protection for the guys ahead of him, and he’s been a tough competitor. He competes playing third base and on the mound.”

Martinez was the third of four pitchers to see action for Lockport and had four strikeouts with two walks while allowing a hit in two innings. Seniors CJ Byrdak, Ryan Vander Tuuk and Lucas Pajeau also pitched.

But it was at the plate where Martinez continued his torrid hitting. He had a two-run double to right-center and later stole home as part of a double steal in the first. Senior Kyle Kevish capped the four-run inning with an RBI single to left.

Minooka (19-6) got on the board in the top of the second on an RBI groundout by senior Caleb Parker (2 for 5). But Lockport answered with four more runs in the bottom half. Izquierdo had an RBI on a fielder’s choice and Martinez smashed a three-run home run to make it 8-1.

Martinez was 3 for 4 with four RBIs and hit first homer since last Wednesday in a 7-3 SouthWest Suburban Conference win over Sandburg in Orland Park.

“On my double, I was sitting on a fastball and was able to drive it to right-center,” Martinez said. “On my home run, it was a fastball again and I turned on it and knew it was gone.

“I had started out well this season but then slowed down. But I’ve worked on my swing and felt better. My swing is now shorter and quicker and I’m making good hard contact.”

The Indians got back in the game with five runs in the third. Dylan Mroz had a two-run double to right, fellow junior Anthony Forillo (2 for 2, two walks) followed with a two-run single to center, and junior Mike Murphy later walked with the bases load to make the score 8-6. But Minooka left the bases loaded and stranded 13 in the game.

“We had a lot of opportunities to score,” Minooka coach Jeff Petrovic said. “Lockport is a great hitting team and we expected them to score, but we just made zero defensive plays and Lockport kept going.”

The Porters did that by coming back with three runs in the bottom of the third on an RBI double by Brown, an RBI fielder’s choice from Izquierdo, and an RBI single to left from Martinez.

In the fifth, Lockport added another run on one of the two Indians’ errors. The Porters polished it off with four runs in the sixth. Junior Niko Mastoras (2 for 4, run) had an RBI single to center, Manzo had an infield RBI base hit, and Izquierdo had a two-run single.

That capped an outstanding day, not only for the Porters but for the cancer causes.

The events started at 10 a.m. and included a bevy of lower-level games as well as the varsity softball team sweeping a doubleheader by scores of 5-1 and 11-1 in six innings against Naperville Central.

Despite the outcome of the game, Minooka was glad to once again be a part of the event. The Indians, who also wore special uniforms honoring someone afflicted with cancer, played in plenty of these games in the past. But there was no game held two years ago because of the pandemic and last season the Porters played Lemont.

“This is certainly something that we look forward to,” Petrovic said. “Mark Staehely [who died March 2006 at the age of 18 after a six-year battle with neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive pediatric cancer] was a student of mine.

“It’s a special day for a couple of great causes. Lockport does a fantastic job with this.”