Porters in complete control

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

It's nice when you get some extra breathing room at the start of a game during the postseason.

Lockport High School's baseball team discovered that when it met Hinsdale South in Saturday's Class 4A Lockport Regional finals.

The Porters scored five runs in the first inning, got two more in the second and added five more in the fourth.

That resulted in an easy afternoon for Lockport as it needed only five innings in order to claim a 12-0 victory over Hinsdale South.

Lockport (21-9) moves on to Thursday's 4:30 p.m. Neuqua Valley Sectional where it faces Benet Academy, which won 4-1 over Wheaton Warrenville South.

It was the seventh regional title in eight years for the Porters, who got hits from seven starters to spark a 12-hit attack as all nine of their regulars reached base.

Brandon Duplessis got the win after giving up only 2 hits and striking out 5.

"One of the things that we talked about was that when you're facing their number one pitcher and they're energized, if you can jump on him for three to five runs it sucks the air out of their team since they have to battle back," Porters coach Steve Stanicek said.

"Those kinds of emotional turns of the game become critical during playoff time. We took advantage of some opportunities and came through in a big way."

Rich Estes walked to open the first, then was sacrificed to second by Mike Frigo (2-for-2) and moved to third base on a ground out by Mike Aguilar (2-for-3).

After Steve Sabatino was hit by a pitch from Hornets starter Ryan Zenger, Matt Denton (2-for-3, 3 RBIs) hit a fly ball to right that was misplayed, scoring Estes.

Jon Cisna (2-for-3, three RBIs) singled home Sabatino, Joe Martin drove in Denton with a single and Anthony Munari (2-for-3, four RBI) followed with a two-run triple.

"That was my first extra base hit of the year," Munari said. "I was just trying to work up the middle. I noticed that he had thrown first-pitch fastballs to everyone before me so he just gave me fastballs and I knew that I just had to jump on it."

In the second inning, Frigo and Aguilar led off with singles and after Sabatino moved the runners along with an infield out, Denton doubled to left to give the hosts a 7-0 lead.

"The past couple of days we've been stressing execution and getting the job done," Denton said.