Lake Central muscles way into first

After playing games for six consecutive days last week, plus a weekend prom, Lake Central coach Jeff Sandor decided to give his team a day off before Tuesday’s conference showdown against Portage.

At first it looked like Lake Central was perhaps showing a combination of rust and prom fallout after committing two first-inning errors, which led to an early 4-0 Portage lead.

But LC responded with 18 hits the rest of the way, highlighted by a pair of home runs by junior outfielder Chase Fieldhouse. Meanwhile, junior hurler Jimmy McNamara overcame the tough first inning, giving up just six hits, and striking out six as the hosts prevailed 16-4 in six innings.

The win put Lake Central (17-3, 8-3) in a tie with Portage (15-6, 8-3) and LaPorte for first place in the Duneland with just three games to go.

“It’s funny how this game works,” Sandor said. “We managed just two hits last week against Valparaiso, and we played so many games in a row. And with prom coming up, I decided to give the kids their first practice off in two years. We caught some nice breaks, but Jimmy really delivered big in some clutch situations where Portage could have closed the gap on us.”

One of those “situations” came when Portage loaded the bases in the top of fifth with Lake Central leading 5-4. McNamara struck out Sam Puchalski to end the threat, and Lake Central added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to extend its lead.

Fieldhouse was 3-for-4 with five RBI and his three-run shot in the last at-bat capped off a seven-run sixth inning and closed out the game for Lake Central. Cody Dykema went for 4-for-4. Driving in the other runs for the Lake Central were Matt Siedentopf (3-for-4, three RBI), Steve Letz (3-for-4, two RBI), sophomore Nick Kellams (2-for-4 two RBI) and Austin Wagoner (3-for-4, one RBI).

“This is a game that should have been 16-0, but we gave up those run on some bad errors,” Sandor said. “But we know that Portage has a scary lineup, and their three-four hitters are as good as it gets in the conference and the region. And in the last week we’ve been finding ways to make errors after playing pretty sound for most of the season.

“But we played sound defense the rest of the way.”

The offensive clinic by Fieldhouse was reminiscent of his start to the season, when he hit .650 and smacked six home runs early.

“Chase has been struggling a little, but he could go nowhere but down after such a hot start,” Sandor said. “It’s going to average out. Yet he’s the type of kid which can explode offensively for us. And he definitely did that today.”

Portage coach Tim Pirowski had nothing but respect for Lake Central’s performance.

“This is the type of game where you have to tip your hat to Lake Central’s hitters,” Pirowski said. “And we left eight or nine runners on base, and you’re not going to win too many games doing that.”

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