Plainfield South rallies to drop L-W Central

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Although it was neither a regularly scheduled game nor officially part of the WJOL Area Baseball Invite, Plainfield South's 8-7 win over Lincoln-Way Central on Saturday afternoon may wind up being one of the most important of the Cougars' season.

Plainfield South (4-3) won the tournament consolation game 10-9 earlier in the afternoon, and the two teams decided to play another. After five and a half innings, the decision didn't seem like a good one to South coach Paul Raspolich, as his youth-laden team trailed 6-0.

That's when both the Cougars and the Knights learned a valuable lesson: A high school baseball game lasts seven innings.

In the bottom of the sixth, a couple of phone calls made by Raspolich early Saturday morning paid off. He had summoned both freshman outfielder Jack McGrail and sophomore shortstop Anthony Worness to come play with the varsity Saturday.

Starting pitcher Bob Hansen, a junior, led off the sixth with a double to left and went to third on a passed ball. Senior Anthony Sanchez scored him with a grounder to third before both Tom Ksiazak and Shawn Lindmark walked, bringing up McGrail.

The big freshman lefty laced a double to right, scoring both runners to make the score 6-3. Chris Calderone, gearing up for bigger and better things, drew a walk, and with Worness at the plate, a wild pitch sent the runners to second and third.

Worness responded with a 2-run single to left -- bringing the score to 6-5 -- but was out trying to stretch it into a double.

"We know we're young and we're inexperienced," Raspolich said. "We can't really control that. But the one thing we can control is our attitude. Our guys kept battling and putting the ball in play. I'm not concerned about us giving up on a game."

Lincoln-Way Central (2-4) seemed to put the game away in the top of the seventh by answering the Cougar uprising with an insurance run of its own.

Tom Helwich, who went 2-for-4 with a double, led off with a single up the middle and, an out later, went to second on a blooper to right by Mike Goshorn. Dan Campbell followed with a blooper to center, loading the bases, and a single to right by Danny Murphy scored Helwich for a 7-5 lead. Central's Shawn Lindmark got out of the jam by striking out pinch-hitter Jeremiah Layug and getting Kevin Kojs to fly to right.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Hansen walked and Sanchez blooped a single that hit the right-field line. An out later, Lindmark singled to right to load the bases. With McGrail at the plate, a wild pitch scored Hansen and McGrail eventually walked to reload the bases.

Up stepped Calderone, and he lined a 1-1 pitch up the middle, scoring Sanchez with the tying run and pinch-runner Chris Selefski with the winner.

"We were down six runs in the sixth and we did a nice job of getting on base," Raspolich said. "We also got some big clutch hits. Hopefully we can use this as a springboard for the rest of the season.

"It's been a long week. We put a lot of work into getting the fields ready for this tournament and it didn't seem like we were ready to play yesterday (a 12-0 loss to JCA). We put more work in today and we were more ready to play."

Hansen pitched well, but Lindmark got the win in relief. Hansen threw 6 innings, allowing 6 hits and 3 earned runs. He struck out 2, walked 4 and hit a batter.

"This is Bob's second varsity start," Raspolich said. "He has some work to do with his off-speed pitches, but he has decent velocity and throws strikes."

Lincoln-Way Central's Rick Jordan had 2 hits, including a double, while Campbell had 2 hits and scored twice.

Central coach Marty Dykas hopes his team can learn a lesson from Saturday as well.

"For five and a half innings, everything went right for us," he said. "That's how it's gone for us this year so far. Give credit to Plainfield South for coming back, but we have to play all seven innings. It's disappointing to score 16 runs in two games and lose them both.

"All we can do is come back the next day and go back to work."