Championship feeling for Lincoln-Way North

Updated: July 29, 2011 8:24PM

Reed Hero knows a good story when he lives it.

Hero delivered the go-ahead hit moments after Lincoln-Way North resumed its Phil Lawler Classic title game against Prairie Ridge on Friday afternoon, and the Phoenix wrapped up a memorable playoff run with an 8-5 win at Benedictine University in Lisle.

That gave the Phoenix (21-4) the unofficial summer state title barely three years after playing its first varsity game, a summer league contest against Bloom. And North did it with a flair for the dramatic, twice coming within one strike of getting knocked out of last week’s regional and then rebounding after an opening loss to Prairie Ridge this week.

“It’s like a dream,” said Hero, an incoming junior first baseman who was named the Lawler Classic MVP. “You think about winning a state title and you want to be on top all the time. But coming back is even better, makes the story so much better.”

Hero played a big role in giving North a happy ending to this tale. He was the first batter up Friday when the title game resumed with none out in the top of the seventh and the score tied at 5 after being suspended because of lightning on Thursday night.

Teammate Ryan Pellack (2-for-4, run) was on first base and Hero wasn’t trying to be the hero, so to speak — at least not right away.

“I was actually thinking about sacrificing myself, bunting to get him over,” Hero said.

But a wild pitch and passed ball on the first two pitches to Hero moved Pellack to third and allowed him to change his strategy.

“I get to swing as hard as I can now,” Hero thought to himself, and he slashed an RBI single through a drawn-in infield to drive home Pellack for a 6-5 North lead. The Phoenix got a couple of insurance runs on No. 9 hitter Josh Handzik’s two-out, two-run single up the middle for an 8-5 edge.

That was more than enough of a cushion for Josh Reid. The rising junior, who got the last out of the sixth on Thursday night, pitched a scoreless seventh to earn the win and set off a raucous celebration highlighted by the traditional water cooler dunking of coach Joe Skarbek.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Skarbek, the only coach North has had. “We’re a little bit ahead of schedule. ... We’ve had some consistency with the coaching staff; I think that’s helped at the lower levels. ... How many juniors did we have (play) today? And that was after a 30-4 spring where we had all those seniors. ‘Oh, you’re going to rebuild.’ Maybe not.”

“It means a lot for the program,” Hero said. “We’re not a team (where people say), ‘Oh, who’s Lincoln-Way North?’ (Instead it’s) ‘Oh, we’re going to throw our ace against Lincoln-Way North because they can hit, they can pitch.’ ’’

Dominic Hartman (2-for-3, run, RBI) and Handzik (2-for-3, 2 RBI) also contributed for North.

Luke Keller (2-for-4, run), Nick Samuels (3-for-4, run) and Nick Bianchi (2-for-3) paced Prairie Ridge (38-21).

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