Wilmington loses lead late to Lincoln-Way East

FRANKFORT – Lincoln-Way East’s Matthew Safarik was sent to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning with a job to do.

Quite frankly, he didn’t do that job.

So he decided he’d better do one better than that after failing on his first attempt.

With the Griffins trailing by a run, Safarik was sent into pinch-hit after Casey Mikrut reached first after being hit by a pitch.

He missed on both his first and second attempts to get a sacrifice bunt down that would have moved Mikrut into scoring position.

So with two strikes, Safarik switched gears and moved into attack mode and lashed a double into the left field corner. Consecutive singles from Cooper Johnson and Charlie Cosich than plated Mikrut and then Safarik as the Griffins escaped with a 2-1 nonconference victory over Wilmington.

“I knew I had to make up for myself and do my job,” Safarik said of the hit. “After two strikes I knew how to get the job done and I went up there thinking line drive.”

The offensive surge was a far cry from what Lincoln-Way East had mustered over the first six innings. The Griffins had just three hits, two of the infield variety, off of Wilmington sophomore starter Cooper Holman.

“I thought their pitcher did a really nice job, he mixed speeds and competed at a high level,” Lincoln-Way East coach John McCarthy said. “And we just had to keep hanging in there, trying to hang in there and trying to have good at-bats and extend the game as best we could.”

The game was a bona fide pitcher’s duel with Lincoln-Way East sending highly touted pitcher Jack Bauer out to start the game, with a legion of scouts there to document his two-inning stint in which he routinely threw in the upper 90’s.

Bauer faced seven batters, striking out six in a 32-pitch appearance before giving way to Cooper Johnson.

Johnson and Holman then locked horns with seemingly neither of them willing to give up much.

Wilmington (1-4) scored its lone run of the contest in the third inning. Drew Jackson drew a one-out walk and later moved up to second. Lucas Rink then lofted a fly ball to center which seemed to be caught for the third out of the inning. But the ball appeared to pop out on the transfer from the glove to the hand, but the umpire ruled that the ball hadn’t been secured for the third out.

Jackson raced around to score in the confusion and for a while it looked like that run might hold up. But Johnson kept battling for Lincoln-Way East, recording eight strikeouts after taking over for Bauer.

“Cooper was fantastic,” McCarthy said. “Mixing speeds, just pounding the zone. It was an incredible effort out of him. Our pitching staff has been outstanding. Cooper kept us in the game and when the lead gets extended it’s tough for us to come back.”