Lockport flies on a Cisna engine

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JOLIET -- Jon Cisna couldn't do anything with the first two fastballs he saw in his second-inning at-bat.

He turned the third one around.

Cisna, a left-handed hitter, drilled a two-out, two-strike pitch into the right field corner for a two-run double. His blast was the highlight of a four-run outburst that propelled the Lockport High School baseball team to a 4-2 victory over Waubonsie Valley in the championship game of the 4A Plainfield South Regional on Saturday.

The victory sends Lockport (26-11) back home to play Naperville Central at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Lockport Sectional at Flink Field. Naperville Central beat Naperville North 19-6 in six innings.

The Porters sent eight batters to the plate in the bottom of the second and scored all four of their runs against Waubonsie starter Kris Singh, a lefty who suffered through his only hiccup.

He yielded three doubles, two walks and a suicide squeeze bunt. Singh (5-5) finally retired Joe Martin on a grounder to get out of the inning and went on to retire the next 13 Lockport batters in succession.

By then, the damage was done.

Kyle Billig's leadoff double started the Porters' line moving. He took third on Josh Johnson's sacrifice bunt and scored on Conner Petschke's suicide squeeze. Petschke had to reach to get his bat on a high, outside pitch.

Then, after Sigh walked Rich Estes and Matt Skrzypiec, Josh Marszalek gave Lockport a 2-0 lead with a two-out RBI double.

Cisna stepped up. He quickly fell behind 0-2 in the count. And then he put a charge into a ball, his double into the corner extending Lockport's lead to 4-0.

"Yeah, you know, it was time to bust the game open," he said. "It was still early. We only had two runs, so it was a big hit. I thought we would score more. But at least we got four right there.

"With two outs, you're just trying to put the ball in play there. If you don't get a hit, maybe they'll boot it. He threw two fastballs on the first two pitches, and I wasn't looking for them. But he came back a third time and I got it."

Lockport's Tyler Willis (6-0) got the victory with seventh-inning relief help from Bandon Duplessis.

Willis overcame some early control issues and relied on his breaking stuff to disrupt the timing of Waubonsie's hitters. The Warriors came in with a .340 team batting average but didn't dent the scoreboard until it was too late.

Willis took a four-hit shutout into the top of the seventh. He hung a 1-1 slider to Singh and Singh connected for a solo homer to pull Waubonsie (20-15) within 4-1.

Then, Willis grooved a first-pitch fastball to the next hitter, Waubonsie's Jonny Straus, and Straus went back-to-back with a homer that cut the deficit to 4-2 and brought in Duplessis from the Porters' bullpen. He allowed a one-out single to Sammy Carius, but in Bobby Jenks-like style retired three of the four hitters he faced to gain the save in his second appearance of the postseason, one fan behind the backstop urging him on the whole way.

"Oh, yeah, little Bobby," he shouted.

"When I come out of the bullpen like that, I have a lot more adrenalin," Duplessis said. "I'm usually a starter. But I'm adjusting to it well, I think. It's been fun. I think the reason for it is to get me an appearance in every game, get me the most innings and give me a chance to contribute the most I can to the team. I'll do whatever I'm asked to do."

Duplessis dodged disaster when Waubonsie's Kevin Kirchner got under a 2-2 pitch and flew out to center for the second out. 'Dups' fanned Jeff Brown on a 1-2 breaking ball to end the game on a high. Duplessis was the winning pitcher in Lockport's 12-4 victory over Plainfield South on Wednesday.

He spent the early innings watching Willis mow down the Warriors.

"I relied on my slider and my curveball today," Willis said. "I didn't have much on the fastball. When I needed it, I snuck it in there, and coach (Lockport pitching coach Butch Marklez) did a great job of calling pitches. I did what he wanted me to do and, then, we he gave me the choice, I tried to go with the off-speed stuff as much as I could because it kept them off balance."

Waubonsie hit into nine groundball outs in the first five innings against Willis.

In the seventh, he was pitching with the idea that the Warriors would be taking strikes and playing a catch-up brand of baseball.

"Yeah, we thought they'd be playing catch-up, because in the inning before that they were taking until they got a strike," Willis said. "I was trying to get ahead with the fastball. The first homer was a hanging slider -- that kid wasn't hitting that pitch all day. But he got a hold of it and hit a bomb out there.

"The second kid -- I was just trying to throw a get-me-over fastball. I didn't even think he'd swing at it, and he took it out."