Cunningham, Hilltoppers walk off with win

Updated: April 5, 2011 2:16PM

Kyle Cunningham crushed it.

Cunningham hit a 3-2 pitch over the right-center field fence for a two-run, walkoff home run as Joliet Catholic rallied to topple Plainfield South 4-3 in the second quarterfinal in the WJOL Tournament at Lockport on Friday night.

The Hilltoppers (2-1) will play host Lockport, an 8-5 winner over Joliet Central, in the semifinals on Saturday morning at 11:30. South (1-2) will play Central in a consolation game at 9 a.m. Both games are at Lockport.

"We got a senior up in that spot and that's what you hope you get, a big hit for a team searching for an identity," acting Joliet Catholic coach Tony Giese said. "I couldn't be happier for him."

Joliet Catholic trailed 3-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh. But winning pitcher junior Nate Searing led off the inning by drawing a full-count walk. He was sacrificed to second and that brought up Cunningham, who started on the mound and went the first five innings.

Cunningham worked the count full and then fouled a pitch off. The he hammered the next offering to right-center and it carried over the fence for the game winner.

"It was a 3-2 pitch and I knew he (South pitcher Eddie Nelson) would come at me," Cunningham said. "I saw it the whole way as it came out of his hand and put a swing on it.

"I felt it off the bat, but put my head down and ran to first. I looked up to see it go over and that was a great feeling. I've hit a home run in a 1-0 win before, but never a walkoff. It was two good teams and a well-fought game, but nothing beats this feeling."

The Hilltoppers scored a run in the top of the first on an RBI ground out by Alex Voitik. South came back to score a pair of runs in the bottom of the third on an RBI single to right by Eric Wos and an double to center by Ricky Salazar.

The score remained that way till the bottom of the sixth when Joliet Catholic's John Trotto was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run and tie the game at 2-2.

The Cougars came back to take the lead in the top of the seventh. With one out Jake Roberts and Victor Garcia smashed back-to-back doubles to center for a 3-2 advantage.

"It was a good high school game and you just tip your hat to their big guy who hit one out," South coach Phil Bodine said. "Our kids played hard."

In the first quarterfinal, Lockport (4-0) sent 11 men to the plate and scored five runs in the bottom of the third to break open a scoreless game.

Mike Hines got things started by stealing home as part of a double steal and later capped the uprising with an RBI single. In between Matt Skrzypiec, Josh Altman, and Ted Snidanko added RBI's.

Snidanko added an RBI triple to make the score 6-0 in the bottom of the fifth.

Senior right-hander Bob Wilmsen went the first five innings for the Porters. He allowed no runs on one hit with four strikeouts.

"Bob pitched well," Lockport coach Andy Satunas said. "But it's early season and he hit his pitch count. We left a lot of runners on base and that allowed them to stay in the game."

The Steelmen (1-4) did just that by scoring four runs in the sixth. Brandyn Smith led off the inning with a single and later scored on an error. Steve Cernak, James McClelland, and Cody Vancina added RBI hits to cut the lead to 6-4.

Lockport got a pair of runs back in the bottom of the inning. Alex Mares had a pinch hit RBI single and Skrzypiec added another RBI base hit to make it 8-4.

But Central didn't go down easy. McClelland had a two-out RBI single and the Steelmen still had the bases loaded when Lockport brought in Garret Kooi to get the last out. That's what he did by getting a tapper back to himself to end the game.

"Other than the one inning (starting pitcher), James McClelland was phenomenal for us," Central coach Tony Juarez said. "He's going to throw a lot of off-speed stuff and throw to contact, but that means we have to make plays.

"Our kids were resilient. We got five runs back and had the bases loaded at the end. It's still not good enough, but it's a positive."

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