Baseball: Lincoln-Way West hangs on for rivalry win over Lincoln-Way Central

NEW LENOX – After his team put up 11 runs in the first two innings, Lincoln-Way West coach Jake Zajc didn’t expect to have to be imploring his players to deliver more offense against district rival Lincoln-Way Central on Wednesday at West.

Ultimately, that 11-run outburst through two innings proved to be enough for the Warriors as they claimed a 12-8 SouthWest Suburban Conference Red Division victory over the Knights, a game that had a few more tense moments than one might have expected after the early rush.

“Even with the start, knowing that Lincoln-Way Central is a great baseball program and they are always fighting until the end,” Zajc said. “They’ve shown the ability over the years to come back. They clawed back. It was stressful. You have an 11-0 lead there and you think you have it in the bag, but when you play good teams, you have to play good defense and we had some mistakes there and we had to keep adding and we didn’t other than that one in the sixth.”

And while the Warriors (16-2-1) were far from flawless after the scoring rush, an 11-run advantage glosses over a lot of mistakes.

But it didn’t look like the Warriors were going to make any mistakes early on, terrorizing the Knights’ pitching staff in the early going to the tune of having them use three different arms just to get out of those first two innings.

Timely hitting was a big part of the Warriors’ early push. It appeared the Knights might get out of a perilous situation in the first inning after they walked the bases loaded with two outs. But Jacob Morris did a beautiful piece of protective hitting, making contact on a ball that eluded the defenders in the outfield and accounted for a rare three-run single. Cam Buckley followed with a single, and Tyler Kocinski added a two-run double to put the Warriors out in front 5-0.

Lincoln-Way West added on the in the second as the first five batters reached and all eventually scored. Harrison Scroggins provided a two-run single to spark the rally, where it seemed almost every player Lincoln-Way West sent into the batter’s box ended up moments later on the basepaths. Thirteen of the first 17 batters for Lincoln-Way West reached base via a hit, walk or error.

Nolan Larson also was having his way with the Lincoln-Way Central batters in the early going. A scratch single and an error were the only things the Knights managed for the first two innings and after striking out the first two batters in the third it appeared that the Knights would go quietly in the inning.

But an infield dribbler went for a hit, and Larson issued a free pass. After that, an error scored the first Knights run, and Nick Signorelli swatted a three-run homer to draw Lincoln-Way Central within 11-4. Although Larson had allowed four runs, none of them were earned.

Lincoln-Way Central kept trying to chip away, getting a solo home run from Collin Mowry in the fifth and an RBI double from Connor Husa in the sixth to get the Knights even closer at 11-6.

Finally, Lincoln-Way West added to the earlier offensive siege with a sixth-inning run to expand the lead to 12-6. But the situation got iffy in the seventh when the first two batters reached for Lincoln-Way Central and eventually scored before Koscinski finally got the Warriors out of danger by retiring the final three hitters of the game.

“It’s the philosophies that we always talk about with our kids. Win the inning. Keep adding, and it’s something that we have to keep enforcing and understanding that you can never score enough runs,” Zajc said.

Mowry led Lincoln-Way Central (10-10) with two hits. The two squads will meet again at Lincoln-Way Central on Thursday as the Warriors try to zero in on a conference crown.

“We’ve been creative in some of our wins, and we have to make ourselves multifaceted,” Zajc said. “Whether its a bunt and baserunning one day or a pitching performance the next. Yeah, we’re on a roll. But baseball is baseball. You have to keep fighting for it.”