Jones delivers in Minooka's win over Plainfield N. MINOOKA -- Chances are nobody every is going to hang the "Slammin' Sammy" nickname over Sam Jones' locker at Minooka High School.
He is not a big enough young man to step into the batter's box and strike fear in the eyes of opposing pitchers. He has been delivering more than his share of the big hits for the Indians since first stepping into the starting lineup on a regular basis about a month ago.
Jones, a senior right fielder, was the sparkplug in a two-out offense Minooka used to rally past Plainfield North in a 6-3 victory on Tuesday afternoon. Six of Minooka's first seven hits came with two outs. Five of Minooka's six runs scored with two outs.
Jones went 2-for-3, including a pair of two-out doubles, and drove in two runs. He also scored twice as Minooka (20-6-1, 14-2) inched closer to winning another conference championship. The Indians stretched their lead over North (15-7, 11-5) to three games in the Southwest Prairie with four remaining on the conference schedule for both teams.
Game 2 of their series is at 4:30 p.m. today at North.
The Tigers nicked Minooka ace Tony Bucciferro (8-1) for two runs on three hits in the top of the second inning. Sam Cashman's bloop single to right scored the first run. Another was pushed across a minute later on Chris Welch's groundout.
Bucciferro, a senior right-hander who is headed to Michigan State, yielded a one-out infield single to North's Mike Gislain in the top of the third. Then, the Tigers loaded the bases after Bucciferro plunked the next two hitters. He struggled in the early going to control his curveball, but, after escaping the jam by rolling a 4-6-3 double play, he was nearly untouchable the rest of the way.
Bucciferro retired the last seven hitters he faced in order without allowing a ball out of the infield. He finished with 10 strikeouts, five coming in the last two innings.
The victory was his 29th in 31 decisions since being promoted to the varsity ranks as a sophomore.
"My curveball wasn't breaking like it usually does," Bucciferro said. "And, yeah, I was getting pitches up. Then, I started calming down a little bit, throwing it lower. My breaking ball started moving, and then I started using my splitter. That helped out a lot. I got a lot of guys on my splitter."
Minooka took the lead in the bottom of the second. Bryan Wellner drew a four-pitch walk to start the line moving. He went to second on Mike Foltynewicz's hit-and-run grounder. Then, with two outs, Justin Troyner delivered a run-scoring single. Jones followed with an RBI double. And he scored on Jeremy Perez's single.
Three batters, three hits, three runs -- all with two outs.
"You know what, I think it was really nice today because we got a lot of run production from the lower part of our order and, like you said, after two outs, which was really nice," Minooka coach Jeff Petrovic said. "It really started with Foltynewicz and that hit-and-run in the second inning. So, we had a runner on second base, two outs and no runs in.
"And we end up leaving the inning with a 3-2 lead. I think that was an important inning for us. Had they managed to get out of that, they would have kept the momentum. They scored two runs. It was nice to jump right back in our half of the inning and score three times to take the lead. Tony (Bucciferro) really got it together at that point in time.
"And we realized that, boy, all of a sudden, he had the best stuff he's had all year. We felt really good about that. In those last four innings, he had complete control of four pitches. He had really good stuff."
Jones, Perez and Jon VanAsdlen each finished with two hits for Minooka. VanAsdlen lofted a two-out solo homer into the breeze in right field in the bottom of the third. Foltynewicz doubled and scored in the fourth.
"You know, Sam (Jones) has kind of been like that all year," Petrovic said. "You're right -- he took advantage of his opportunity to play early on. That's great. You pull for kids like that. He came into the year not as a our starter and he started hitting. And I've always felt that outfield is a position that you need to hit.
"Defensively, you do need a strong outfield, but we really look for that to be one of our offensive positions. And he's done that. And it was nice to see today because he started out really hot when he got the opportunity. He's since cooled down a little bit. And it was nice to see him come through and get those hits today. "Coach (Derrick) Rapsky does a lot of work with our outfielders and a lot of work with our hitters. He's always said, 'You kind of watch Sammy and he's kind of sneaky.' Because he'll go through streaks where he gets going and he'll do some damage. But even when he's not hitting as well as he could be, he still gets a hit here or there, and it's usually a bit hit. So, that was nice to see tonight, for him to get us going."
Gislain (5-3) went the distance for North. He allowed eight hits and struck out eight. He also had two hits and one RBI. He has plans to study engineering and walk on the baseball team at Illinois next season. He scored 30 on his ACT.
He would have walked away with a victory over another future Big Ten pitcher were it not for a couple of bounces and a string of two-out hits by the Indians.
"Yeah, it was really big to come up with those two-out hits," Jones said. "It helped us out when we were down. In that second inning, with 'Folty' and that hit-and-run and then I hit that double and we just kept going from there."
Jones has played in the shadows of Bucciferro since the two were young boys.
"We're good friends on and off the field," Bucciferro said. "The opportunity came for him about a month back. He's been constantly getting hits. It's great to see."
"Like I've said from Day 1, when's the last time Minooka's lost a series?" Plainfield North coach John Darlington said. "We're going back four or five years now. A series. I'm not talking a game. I'm talking about the last time they've been beaten twice in a series. If you can do that, then you can throw your hat out there and say, 'We're pretty good.'
"If you take two of three from them, you're pretty good. We've got two more to go. We've got play better and hit better. If you do that, you give yourself a chance."
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