Baseball: Lincoln-Way East survives wild one to win first sectional since 2011

LOCKPORT — With Lincoln-Way East ahead by four runs with four outs to go, Trevor Fishman had a hot shot hit to him at third. The ball took a bad hop but it’s one that the senior believes he should have had. It scored two runs and a couple of batters later, Lockport tied the game.

But when Fishman came up, with the score still tied, in the bottom of the seventh, he delivered.

His two-out line single to left scored Michael Simental with the winning run as the Griffins outlasted Lockport 10-9 on Saturday in the title game of the Class 4A Lockport Sectional at Flink Field.

Lincoln-Way East (31-8) will face Brother Rice, a 6-3 winner over St. Rita at the Mount Carmel Sectional, on Monday at approximately 7:30 in the Crestwood Supersectional at Ozinga Field.

With two outs and Simental on second, the Porters (22-14) elected to intentionally walk senior designated hitter John Connors.

That brought up Fishman, whose solid single gave the Griffins their first sectional title since 2011.

“It was the second time this season they have done that,” said Fishman, who also had a two-run double in that situation in a 13-5 win over Providence on May 6. “I knew I had to come through, It was a fastball and I crushed it to left.

“The whole inning, I was looking ahead and saw that I could be batting, and I was hoping for that at-bat and an opportunity to come through.”

The nearly three-hour sectional title game was a wild one. It featured 19 runs, 18 hits, five errors, 15 walks, two hit batters, a balk, a run scoring on an interference call, and the Porters ending their final at-bat in the seventh on a bizarre double play where the batter overran the runner who was on first following a deep fly out to center.

“Holy Cow! You had to do the math on how many guys were left on base,” Lincoln-Way East coach Eric Brauer said of the 16 stranded runners in the game, nine of them by his team. “But Trevor had a tough game at third base and then he comes through. I’m super proud of him. He came through for the team and he has a lot of grit.

“Before last year (Lincoln-Way West won the sectional) there was only one sectional championship (East in 2011) in all of Lincoln-Way baseball history. But our guys have been in a lot of close games, we’re 13-6 in games decided by three runs or less. So that experience helped us in the toughest sectional in the state. It’s been a fun ride.”

With two outs and two on in the sixth, senior first baseman Jake Moerman (3-for-3, HBP, 3 R, 2 RBI) hit the shot toward third that took a bad hop for what was ruled a single, and two runs scored to cut the Griffin lead to 9-7. Freshman designated hitter Colton Benaitis (2-for-3, BB) followed with an RBI single to center and later scored the tying run on a passed ball.

But senior Connor Bird got out of the inning with a pop-up and then didn’t allow any runs in the top of the seventh.

Matt Hudik made a great catch to save two runs and end the third. The junior right fielder later led off the seventh with a single to right before being pinch run for by Simental. Junior shortstop Tyler Bell was 2-for-4 with a walk, a double, and a two-run home run to right in a five-run fourth. Later in the inning, two errors with two outs and a two-run single by senior center fielder Jack Josich put Lincoln-Way East up 9-4.

“That felt good,” Bell said of his ninth homer of the season. “We just tried to put runs up and keep it going. Some things didn’t go our way but we still had guys come up big in big situations. We just want to keep this going.”

Senior first baseman Zach Kwasny added three RBI on a bases-loaded walk in a two-run first and a two-run double to left in the third, which put the Griffins ahead 4-1.

Dylan Nagle and Niko Mastoras each had two hits and an RBI for the Porters, who outhit Lincoln-Way East 11-7 but had four pitchers issue nine walks, committed four errors, and never led in the game.

“I’m just so proud of this team, our heart kept us in it,” Lockport coach Scott Malinowski said. “This game is not about being perfect, it’s about overcoming your imperfections. There weren’t any losers in this game, we just got on the wrong side of the score.”