Prep baseball: Joliet West uses big innings to beat Wilmington

JOLIET – One year ago, the Joliet West baseball team far too often failed to take advantage when opportunities presented themselves.

That was not a problem Wednesday afternoon as the Tigers, helped by some generosity on Wilmington’s part, rolled to a 12-7 nonconference victory over the Wildcats.

“Last year, we gave up too many of our opportunities,” said Tigers third baseman Chris Rios, who had two doubles, one with the bases loaded to drive in two runs, and a bunt single where the Wilmington defense was late covering first.

“We’re 2-0 now. We have won a third as many games as we won all last year (when the Tigers finished 6-24-2), and we’re still in the first week.”

Wilmington (2-2) scored three times in the top of the second inning to take a 3-0 lead as the Tigers were in a giving mood, committing four errors in the inning. That made the three runs off senior right-hander Cameron Conway unearned. Will Van Duyne had a single to help jumpstart the inning, Kyle Lewis knocked in a run with a groundout, and Garrett Roth singled home a run with the first of his three hits.

West (2-0) tied it, 3-3, in the bottom of the second, scoring three times off starter and losing pitcher Josh Jones with the help of two Wilmington errors. Brett Johnson ignited the uprising with a long double, Mark Garcia drove in a run with a pop-fly single, and Tyler Pransky walked with the bases full.

The Tigers then put five on the board in a third inning in which Rios had his bunt single, Dylan Suca walked with the bases full, Lorenzo Serrato and Mason Kapsrisin singled home runs, and Garcia chipped in an RBI groundout.

“We had a bad inning, but the guys rebounded,” West coach John Karczewski said. “We played errorless ball Monday [in a 3-2 win over Yorkville], and we made six or seven errors today. But we battled. We kept trying to work through the process. We were grinding out at-bats.”

The Tigers added insurance with a 4-spot in the fifth inning to go up,
12-3, as Kapsrisin had an infield single, Pransky and Joey Keigher legged out back-to-back bunt singles, Ben Rogina lifted a sacrifice fly, Rios ripped his two-run double, and Suca's pop fly fell for an RBI single.

“It was freezing Monday, a little warmer today, and I got my swing down,” Rios said. “They were pitching me inside, and I kept hitting the ball down the left field line. [A coach] said why don’t you get off the plate and go the other way, and they pitched me further inside.”

Rios hit fifth in the lineup, with Rogina third and the left-handed swinging Johnson in the cleanup spot. After a junior season in 2017 where he was sidelined with mononucleosis, then fouled a ball off his lip on a bunt attempt when he returned and wound up playing in only about a dozen games, Rogina is thrilled to be healthy. He had two hard singles and a line fly to left Wednesday preceding his sacrifice fly.

“I’ve been hitting fastballs,” Rogina said. “I simplified my approach. I’m looking for a fastball in a certain spot, and if I get it, I rip it.”

“Ben is locked in,” Karczewski said.

Not only did Conway show well on the mound, but so did sophomore Dylan Wolff, who worked 2 1/3 innings of hitless, scoreless relief. He struck out four and walked one.

“We wanted to get Wolff a couple innings,” Karczewski said. “He obviously will be good.”

“Our pitching helped us out,” said Rogina, the Tigers’ catcher. “Wolff came in and threw curve, curve, curve and really had those guys guessing.”

Wilmington scored four runs after two were out in the seventh inning against Carter Karczewski, the third West pitcher, to make the final more respectable. Kyle Lewis was hit by a pitch to knock in a run, Roth and Will Hainline had RBI singles and Conner Dempsay, who relieved Jones on the mound during West’s big third inning, walked for an RBI.

“It was little things today,” Wilmington coach Mike Bushnell said. “They’ll beat you with their pitching depth, and being a small school, we are limited in depth. We made mental errors and actual errors, and we can’t afford that. We have to be ready to play every day and we have to play sound defense.

“I think we will be OK. Our goal is to be competing for our conference [Interstate Eight] championship.”

All four of the Wildcats’ games have been one-sided, at least until they made Wednesday’s game closer in the seventh inning. They lost to Lincoln-Way East 13-0, beat Pontiac 12-1 and beat Prairie Central 11-2.