Skrzypiec's big day helps Porters advance

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He easily could play in another 100 high school baseball games, counting spring and summer ball.

He likely never will play in one stranger or more memorable than Lockport’s 12-4 victory over Plainfield South in a 4A regional semifinal on Wednesday afternoon and early evening at South.

Sophomore left fielder Matt Skrzypiec had two hits in three official at-bats to spark the Porters in a 2-hour, 44-minute marathon that made up for what it lacked in style points with a “gee whiz, what’s next?” factor. He also scored two runs and finished with four RBI.

South, which had won 17 of 19 and was looking to play the role of spoiler, scored half of its runs in a most unconventional fashion. Twice Cougar runners reached on dropped third strikes and went on to score, both times without the aid of a single hit.

“It was that kind of day,” Lockport coach Steve Stanicek said. “And Joe Martin is an outstanding catcher. He had a couple of things happen, and I think that’s real frustrating for a pitcher.

“Jon (Cisna) battled through it, but it’s got to be frustrating when you’re striking people out and now you’re holding people on base.”

Cisna, the Lockport lefty who started, worked 3 2/3 innings. He allowed three runs — two earned — on three hits. He struck out nine and walked three. And, while he was a little bit off the mark at times, his day was rather routine compared to that of Skrzypiec.

He walked and scored in the bottom of the first on a two-out single by Martin. Then, in the second, Skrzypiec’s two-out RBI single rallied Lockport into a 2-2 deadlock. In the fourth, he belted a 1-2 pitch over the left-field fence for a two-run homer. The homer was Skrzypiec’s second of the season and put the Porters ahead for good 5-3.

In the fifth, he stepped in the batter’s box with the bases loaded and had a hand in helping Lockport put the game away with a three-pitch, three-run offensive “explosion” — if that’s the right word to describe the Porters’ knockout punch. The first run scored on a wild pitch, the second on a passed ball.

Skrzypiec’s sacrifice bunt finally cleared the bases and stretched Lockport’s lead to 9-4. He reached on an error in the sixth, but was stranded on second. By then, Conner Petschke had connected for a three-run homer to put the exclamation point on the Porters’ 11-hit attack.

“It was a tight game until about the fifth inning,” Petschke said. “We started swinging the bats pretty good. On my homer, it was a full count. I was just trying to get a bat on the ball. The pitch was high — way too high. It could have been ball four. I don’t know why I swung, but it went out of here, so I was happy.”

Petschke finished with two hits in four at-bats. He scored two runs and had three RBI. Kyle Billig and Rich Estes also had two hits. Brandon Duplessis (9-1) pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-run ball to gain the win. He allowed two hits and struck out five.

Lockport (25-11) moves on to face Downers Grove South or Waubonsie Valley in the regional championship game at 10 a.m. Saturday at Plainfield South. The Mustangs and Warriors meet in a semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

“Oh, no, I have not ever had an at-bat like that one (in the fifth),” Skrzypiec said. “I knew I had to bring my ‘A’ game today. Coach said from the beginning we’ve got to go out there strong. So, I knew I had to bring it. This is playoff time. We’ve got to be ready to do whatever we’ve got to do. With that bunt, I knew I had to get it down to get that last run in.”

Duplessis said Skrzypiec’s can-do attitude spread throughout the ranks in the Porters’ dugout.

“That’s all you need is one person to start stepping up,” Duplessis said. “And then it seems like it’s contagious. If one person starts hitting real well, then everyone starts hitting real well. I think his first home run — that started it all off. He’s a sophomore. Once hit a hit home run, everybody else was like, ‘Oh, we can do that, too.’ ”

Stanicek said Skrzypiec’s play as a freshman middle infielder opened eyebrows and earned him a shot to play with the Lockport varsity squad last summer.

“We brought him up,” Stanicek said. “We just did not have a leadoff hitter. We didn’t have a guy that could drive the ball a little bit, run the bases well. We didn’t have that guy. So, we were trying to figure what we were going to do. We thought he could be the guy. But we weren’t sure where to play him.

“We put him in left field and — probably the biggest surprise, we knew he could hit, but he’s played an outstanding left field for us this year.”

South’s run from 5-10 to 22-13 ended in a stark contrast from the Cougars’ two-month long surge. The Cougars struck out 14 times and committed five errors.

Bob Hansen had two hits, including a double, and scored one run. Freshman shortstop Jake Roberts doubled and scored a run. Drew Turk also doubled.

“To beat good baseball teams like Lockport is, you have to make routine plays,” South coach Phil Bodine said. “You have to throw the baseball as a pitcher where you can’t get hurt. And we didn’t do that today. That’s high school baseball.

“When you’re a team like we are right now, you have to play perfect baseball to beat very good teams like they are. We didn’t do that. We had opportunities to get some clutch hits. We didn’t get it done. But, the bottom line, is they’re a good team. We knew we had to play a perfect baseball game to beat them. We knew had to throw pitches where we needed to throw them where we couldn’t get hurt, and we did.

“We had the kid on the home run 1-and-2 and we were throwing a ball in the other batter’s box and we missed a little bit. That’s high school baseball. That’s pro baseball. They make mistakes. But our kids had a nice year. Our seniors finished strong. We did some nice things, and we played a lot of young kids. Hopefully, we can build on that and get to the next step next year.”