Blackburn, Neuqua thwart Lockport

Updated: May 28, 2011 9:07PM

Giving up two early runs in a regional championship game might cause most juniors to lose confidence and crack under the pressure.

Someone forgot to give Nick Blackburn the memo.

Blackburn bounced back from a two-run first inning and served as the stop-gap in every Lockport rally as Neuqua Valley captured the Lockport 4A Regional championship over the host Porters 7-3 Saturday.

After a two-run first, Blackburn stranded two runners in the second before cruising in the third.

In the meantime, his teammates were doing their job at the plate.

The Wildcats scored one in each of the first two innings off Lockport starter Garrett Kooi. Tanner Giesel led off the third with a single. Designated hitter Ryan O’Keefe reached on an error followed by a Dylan Goss infield single, loading the bases with no outs. After back-to-back flyouts, Andrew Skowronski delivered with a two-run single into right field giving the Wildcats the 4-2 lead.

That would be enough for Blackburn.

The junior right-hander reached a potential problem in the fifth. After consecutive singles by Billy Reed and John Kosmowski, Blackburn was looking at Lockport’s middle of the order with no outs and the tying run on base. He responded by forcing a flyout and groundout around a strikeout escaping the jam preserving the 4-2 lead.

“He was good, he was real good,” Neuqua coach Robin Renner said. “I know some things have to go our way if we are going to advance, and Nick made his pitchers, they hit it at us, and we caught the ball.”

The Wildcats added three insurance runs in the sixth with a trio of doubles from Nick Iarrobino, Giesel and O’Keefe.

Despite the recent success of Renner’s program, this regional championship remains important.

“It’s a big deal,” Renner said. “It’s a new group of kids who haven’t experienced it yet. They don’t just hand these plaques out. Our kids believed in themselves and each other and I couldn’t be prouder of how they performed today.”

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