It's more Lockport magic

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LOCKPORT -- Even though Lockport Township High School's baseball team trailed Lincoln-Way East 4-2 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, Rich Estes thought that his Porters could stage a comeback.

Following a similar script that it had used just two days earlier when it scored a pair of runs in the seventh inning to pull out an 8-7 win at Andrew, Lockport was able to go one better on Thursday against the Griffins.

Estes delivered a two-out single to right that scored Anthony Munari for the go-ahead run as the Porters scored 3 times in the sixth to capture a 5-4 SouthWest Suburban Conference crossover win at Flink Field.

Lockport (12-1, 5-0) got the spark it needed in the sixth when Josh Stanton smacked his first home run of the year, a solo shot to left off starter Josh Folgers, who was then relieved by Brian Russell.

"Their pitcher was throwing pretty hard, so I was thinking that I had to go the other way," Estes said. "Josh has been hitting the warning track a lot, so it was good to see him get that homer and it was huge.

"I never had a doubt in my mind that we couldn't win this game. We've been competing so much lately that I knew that we're not just going to give up. I like the confidence level that we have on this team."

Jon Cisna (2-for-3) greeted Russell by lining a double off the left field fence and Anthony Munari got a two-out single to center to score courtesy runner Derek Crouch.

Then, following a wild pitch, Estes (3-for-4) slapped a single to right that brought home Munari with the go-ahead run.

Sean Forte (6-0) retired 7 of the last 8 batters he faced, including the side in the seventh, to get the victory.

"Everything seems like it's falling into place where we can't lose," catcher Stanton said. "Right now it's just a big-time team effort with somebody different stepping up each day and getting the job done.

"Sean has pretty much been on the money all year for us. We had some balls that we hit well but they just weren't falling. At the end, I got a pitch I liked and finally drove one out and that felt pretty good."

Although coach Steve Stanicek's squad hit the ball well, Folgers limited them to just 4 hits through the first 5 innings.

In the decisive sixth inning, Lockport equaled its hit total, collecting the final 3 off reliever Russell, who took the loss.

"We're not dominating anyone around here, but the guys seem to find a way to put a 'W' on the board," Stanicek said. "When you start getting a lot of wins like that it builds confidence and hopefully we've developed an expectation to win.

"I thought we hit the ball pretty hard all day. East is a quality team and it made some nice plays in the outfield and some great plays in the infield on some hard hit balls. But, finally, in the seventh inning those hard-hit balls started dropping."

Andrew Wendt drove in Tom Lilja (2-for-4, 2 runs) to give East (10-4, 3-2) a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Porters got 2 runs in the second when Cisna doubled in Matt Denton and later scored on an error.

The Griffins got 2 runs against Porter starter Tyler Willis in the fourth when John Lorenz scored on a fielder's choice by Alex Koszulinski and courtesy runner Tim Scott came home on a wild pitch.

East increased its advantage to 4-2 in the fifth inning when Brandon Hohl scored on a 2-out single to center by Cody Erikson (2-for-3) off reliever Forte.

"I think Steve would agree that neither team played well defensively early on," Griffins coach Paul Babcock said. "And that sets the tone. If we play great from the get-go, maybe we're not in that position.

"But give Lockport credit since it hit the heck out of the ball in that last inning and took the lead. We just didn't execute as well as we needed to today. But you'd rather this happens now than in late May."