Joliet deals blow to Porters

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If you can't grab a share of the championship yourself, there's not much better than spoiling things for your longtime rival.

That's the way the members of the Joliet baseball team figured it.

Senior right-hander Pat Murray breezed after surviving a long third inning and leadoff man Matt Porter drove in two runs and scored a pair Thursday as the Steelmen beat Lockport 6-2, dealing the Porters a severe blow in the SouthWest Suburban Blue title chase.

Lockport (14-8, 7-3) is a game behind Sandburg in the loss column. The Porters will host JT (18-9, 8-4) at 11 a.m. Saturday and still have two games remaining with Stagg.

"We're hoping we can come out Saturday and get another win," Porter said. "I doubt if we can tie for the conference, but if we can't, tying Lockport for second is pretty good."

Lockport took a 2-0 lead in the long top of the third inning, where Murray would throw 37 of the 90 pitches he tossed in going the seven-inning distance. Anthony Munari and Rich Estes walked, Mike Frigo reached on a fielder's choice, Mike Aguilar knocked in a run on a groundout and Steve Sabatino singled one home.

"Yeah, that was a rough inning," said Murray (5-1), whose other scare came when he appeared to injure his ankle fielding a sacrifice bunt in the fourth inning.

"I actually rolled the ankle earlier in the season," he said. "Tonight, at first I was thinking I popped something."

Murray did not allow a walk and threw an economical 33 pitches after the third inning, and his defense time and again came up big. That included Porter's diving catch in right field to rob Matt Denton leading off the sixth and second baseman Nolan Suste's diving stop and throw to first to retire Frigo and end the game.

"I trust my defense all the time," Murray said. "Everybody can make plays. The wind helped today too, blowing in like it was. It seems like it's usually blowing out when I pitch."

When the Porters are victimized, it is extra sweet for Murray.

"I know some of the Lockport guys, like Mike Frigo. He's a good player and a good guy," he said. "And my dad (Mike) is a Lockport graduate. So it's always nice if we can beat them."

JT coach Terry Piazza joked that a switch in coaching duties may be in order.

"Our pitching coach (John Karczewski) had to take off early and I took over calling pitches," Piazza said. "I basically went with Pat's (Murray's) bread and butter, which was his fastball, and stuck with it. There were only a couple of guys in their lineup who were handling his fastball."

JT got one run back in the bottom of the third as Porter was hit by a pitch, went to third on Tyler Brown's hit-and-run single and scored on Lockport left-hander Tyler Willis' errant throw to first on a pickoff attempt.

The Porters still led 2-1 until the bottom of the fifth. The Steelmen's Tyler Zurliene led off with an infield single off the glove of third baseman Aguilar. Suste sacrificed and Porter tied it with a single to center. Brown walked to end Willis' day and Matt Heizer greeted reliever Dan Palac with an RBI single to right-center to give the Steelmen a 3-2 lead.

An errant throw by Lockport catcher Josh Stanton on a steal allowed a run to score, and a wild pitch brought home another to complete the four-run uprising and make it 5-2.

The final JT run would score in the sixth when Suste doubled with two outs and scored on Porter's second hit.

"Lockport's a good team," Piazza said. "They played well for the most part, but they made a couple of mistakes, and we took advantage.

"We did most of the damage in that one inning (fifth). We got some clutch hits and did what we had to do."

It goes in the books as a boost the Steelmen needed.

"We made the long trip to Edwardsville last weekend and hit the ball well, but our pitching wasn't good," Piazza said. "Then we were sluggish Monday against Stagg. I think we needed the extra day off we got yesterday because of the rain."

"They got everything done tonight," Lockport coach Steve Stanicek said.

Stanicek said it was the opposite for his Porters, and has been for a while now.

"Over the last five games, this that you saw tonight has been us," he said. "We're not playing well, not catching it well. We did not execute plays. We gave them three runs without them hitting the ball. Tyler (Willis, who is 3-2) got behind hitters, which isn't the usual for him, but he battled.

"But the bottom line is, we have to hit more than we did tonight to win in this conference. In the beginning of the year, everyone was picking up each other. Now one guy is going bad and everybody is bad."

Stanton doubled and singled for the Porters, and Tom Bedwell roped a seventh-inning double.

"This win is a good confidence builder for us," Piazza said. "We'll see Lockport on Saturday, and we're looking to see them down the road, too, in the regional."