LW East on cloud nine after big rally

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There are rallies and then there are rallies.

Lincoln-Way East pulled off the latter as it rallied for nine runs in the top of the seventh to stun Minooka 12-7 Thursday afternoon in the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Lockport Regional championship.

East, which entered the regional as the No. 19 seed out of 21 teams, will play Naperville Central, a 6-1 winner over Neuqua Valley, in the opening round of pool play in the IHSBCA summer state tournament on Monday at North Central College in Naperville.

"I'm so proud of these guys," East coach Paul Babcock said. "We made some mistakes early, but our guys came back and showed some fight."

The Griffins (13-2) certainly did that as they trailed 7-3 heading into the seventh. But Brandon Hohl, who finished 3-for-3 with three runs scored and two RBI, doubled off the left-field fence to open the inning.

Hohl was wild-pitched to third and scored on an RBI single to right by George Patteson. That would prove to be the only earned run of the inning.

Following a strikeout, Sam Eble singled to center to put runners at first and second. Spencer Stanek then drew walk to load the bases.

After a pitching change, Minooka got a strikeout and appeared to be on the verge of winning the regional title. Pinch-hitter Jake Dobson then hit a ground ball to short that was booted as Tim Scott, who was running for Patteson, crossed the plate to make it 7-5.

A wild pitch then enabled Eble to score and bring the Griffins within a run. Derek Siadak then walked to reload the bases and Ryan Herman came to the plate. With the count at 2-2, Herman bounced a hard single up the middle as Stanek and Dobson dashed home with the tying and go-ahead runs.

"I was just trying to hit it hard and get it in the hole," said Herman, who finished 3-for-5 with three RBI. "I was just trying to put the ball in play for my team and ran as fast as I could to first. It felt great."

Hohl was hit by a pitch to reload the bases and prompt another Indians pitching change. That didn't help as Siadak scored right away on a wild pitch to make it 9-7. Then Patteson slugged a three-run homer to center field to cap the nine-run rally.

"I wasn't looking for a home run, I was looking to put the ball in play," said Patteson, who had four RBI in the inning and was 4-for-5 on the day. "I knew we weren't going to lose. That deficit didn't seem to bother us, we just fought back and got hits."

"Ryan Herman did a great job taking that 2-2 pitch up the middle," Babcock said. "Then George capped it off. I haven't seen a ball hit like that, he crushed it. He hit every ball hard today."

Matt Hartmann then mowed down Minooka in the bottom of the seventh with three straight strikeouts to finish his complete-game victory. The right-hander and rising junior allowed four earned runs on eight hits. But most impressively he walked none and struck out 12.

"I wasn't going to let anyone get on in the last inning," said Hartmann, who retired the first nine batters he faced. "My curve was working well and then my high, inside fastball.

"It was just an amazing comeback, they made a couple of errors and we took advantage of it. It's pretty sweet to get to the summer state tournament."

East, which scored 52 runs in its five games this week, had an early 3-0 lead as Hohl hammered a two-run home run in the third and Herman had an RBI single in the fourth.

Minooka (10-4) tied the game at 3-3 in the fourth on an error, an RBI single up the middle by starting pitcher Mike Foltynewicz and a booming triple to right-center by Niko Capodice.

The Indians took the lead with 3 more in the fifth as Dan Vogrin scored on a wild pitch and Brian Martin (2-for-4) and Jeremy Perez scored on a two-out error. Vogrin, who entered the game in the fifth and was 2-for-2, added a two-out RBI single in the sixth that put Minooka ahead 7-3.

"That's why you have to play them all out the whole way," said Minooka coach Jeff Petrovic, who saw his team commit four errors that led to 10 unearned runs. "They hit the ball hard everywhere, but in the postseason there's nothing more important than defense and we kicked the ball around.

"Still my hats off to (East). They played hard and came back like that."

"That was amazing," Patteson said. "Everyone stayed up and we believe in ourselves. There's nothing that's going to stop us now."