Minooka, Lockport pull out WJOL wins

Minooka and Lockport's baseball teams had their opening game in last year's WJOL tournament decided by a tiebreaker, which went in Minooka's favor.

In Friday's opening-round play in the same tournament at Minooka, the two squads were both nearly victims of the same tiebreaker rule, but advanced after claiming extra-inning wins.

Minooka edged Lincoln-Way Central 3-2 in nine innings while Lockport pulled out a 2-1 victory over Plainfield Central in eight innings.

The Indians (4-1) prevailed when David Haldeman walked on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded and two outs to bring home Brian Papp for the game-winning run.

Lincoln-Way Central (2-2) moved ahead 2-1 in the sixth following a solo homer from Aric Marquardt but Minooka tied things later that inning when Kyle Joerger singled in Brian Martin.

"It's strange when you have all of these tiebreaker rules since no one wants to win like that," Minooka coach Jeff Petrovic said. "They were ahead of us in strikeouts and we were ahead on walks, but it's bizarre to be thinking about that stuff."

In the second game, Lockport (3-1) moved in front of the Wildcats (0-3) for good when Jon Cisna doubled and then scored on an infield error.

That made a winner of reliever Sean Forte, who pitched out of bases-loaded, one-out jams in both the fourth and sixth innings.

Plainfield Central starter Tim Meyer got a no decision despite striking out 12 batters while allowing two hits in six innings of work.

"It's a great feeling to win a game like this," Lockport coach Steve Stanicek said. "I thought Meyer threw very well and had good velocity but Sean did what he has done for us for two years, which is stopping the bleeding in big situations."