Porter, Steelmen recover to beat Benet

Matt Porter has been a hockey player since he was 5 years old.

He knows a little something about working up a good sweat. You know, kind of the way it goes when you throw 150 pitches to win a regional semifinal.

Porter allowed home runs to three of the first six hitters in the bottom of the first, shrugged it off and carried Joliet to a 12-6 victory over Benet on Thursday afternoon as the Steelmen advanced to Saturday’s 1 p.m. Joliet Regional final against Providence.

“Oh, yeah, I’m feeling tired right now,” Porter said with a smile. “But this was a big game and I wanted to finish it. I just had to throw it in there at the end and let our defense make the plays.”

Porter (5-2) will attend Joliet Junior College to continue his baseball career. Wolves coach Wayne King can rest assured he is getting one tough hombre.

“I was sweating today just like I had a played a hockey game,” senior left-hander said.

But not because the Redwings, right off the get-go, treated Porter like one of those meatball pitchers in Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game. The shocking beginning — two solo homers and a two-run shot after a sharp single for a 4-0 Benet lead — did not faze him.

“It didn’t really affect me at first because I knew what happened,” he said. “They’re a good hitting team, which I knew, and I left the ball up in the first inning. They did what they’re supposed to do with it.”

There have been times when JT (19-14), the No. 9 seed in the Class 4A Lockport Sectional, has had difficulty executing offensively. This was not one of those times, with Porter, the leadoff man, providing significant spark.

Porter’s two-run single in the second inning, in fact, sliced the deficit to 4-2. That was the second of Porter’s four hits among JT’s whopping total of 17.

Benet (20-14 and the No. 8 seed) scored once in the bottom of the second, but the Redwings’ offense would not be heard from again until Pat Gelwicks launched his second homer of the game, a solo shot in the seventh. Oh, they had baserunners, all right, but Porter finished the third with a pickoff, then stranded seven over the final four innings.

As for the JT offense, the Steelmen applied constant pressure.

Singles by Mike Hollenbeck and Matt Heizer, each of whom finished with three hits and two RBI, keyed a two-run third, when Eric Sowa chipped in with a sacrifice fly that made it 5-4.

JT had a runner thrown out at the plate in the fourth but still scored twice on five hits to take the lead for good. Chad Carlson doubled, sophomore shortstop Damon Softcheck greeted reliever Adam Janssen with an RBI double and Porter singled. Softcheck was thrown out at the plate, but Hollenbeck singled in the go-ahead run for a 6-5 JT lead.

“We kept bouncing back, bouncing back, bouncing back,” JT coach Terry Piazza said. “There was no quit in these kids. We got down 4-0 and got a couple runs right away, they scored another one and we came back with a couple more. Then we got a couple more and took the lead.”

The Steelmen had worked hard this week on their hitting, anticipating they would face Benet’s ace right-hander, John Boyle. They did, but in relief. Hollenbeck’s go-ahead RBI single and Heizer’s followup single came off Boyle in the fourth, and JT scored five runs off him in the fifth to open an 11-5 lead.

“We were expecting to see Boyle from the start,” Piazza said. “We saw him beat Brother Rice last week.”

“We practiced for him a lot,” Heizer said. “We faced faster pitching and a lot of sliders in practice (Boyle features a plus fastball and slider). When he didn’t start, the ball starting looking like watermellons against the left-hander (Benet starter Patrick Callahan).”

“This was the best we have hit the ball in a while,” Porter said. “It didn’t matter who was pitching, we came together with the bats. We put in a lot of practice for (Boyle).”

The five-run fifth featured five hits. Sowa singled and Matt Rochetti reached on a dropped popup.

Benet then anticipated a bunt and put on the play where the shortstop races in just before the pitch is delivered to be in position to field the bunt. But Chad Carlson was swinging and grounded the ball through the vacated shortstop position for an RBI single to make it 7-5. He could not have thrown it any better.

Softcheck singled, Porter reached on a fielder’s choice at the plate, Tyler Brown walked to drive in a run, Hollenbeck also hit into a fielder’s choice at the plate, but Heizer and Dan Eichholzer singled in runs to make it 11-5.

“Our kids did a great job getting the bat on the ball and going to the right side all game long,” Piazza said. “We executed. Even when we were down, we knew there was a lot of baseball left, and the key was to not get too far behind and keep coming back.”

Coming back was made a little easier because of the warrior in the center of the diamond, who threw at least 20 pitches in all but one inning yet was in control of the Steelmen’s destiny.

“Matt pitched a great game,” Piazza said of Porter. “That’s why he was out there. What happened in the first inning, that never phased him.”

“Matt, the thing about him is you know you’re getting the best effort from him every time he’s out there,” Heizer said.

Thursday’s battle certainly goes in the books as one of his best efforts.

As a result, Piazza prevailed over one of his old buddies, Benet coach and Joliet Catholic graduate Jeff Bonebrake. He will see another old friend Saturday as Mark Smith leads his Celtics into the regional final.

“It’s tough to go against Bone and Smitty, guys I used to play with, but I want to win,” Piazza said.

“It should be a good one, a tough one, with Providence. I really can’t remember the last time we played them and it was not a good game.”

This time, though, Piazza and the Steelmen will have to get the job done without Porter on the mound.

Yes, 150 pitches made him sweat.

Three homers in the first inning? No big deal there.