Baseball: Joliet West spoils Plainfield Central’s senior night with 12-2 win

PLAINFIELD – It may have been Plainfield Central’s senior night, but it was Joliet West that was doing the celebrating at the end of Thursday’s baseball game.

A two-run home run by Owen Young in the top of the third inning helped boost momentum in Joliet West’s favor, as the Tigers spoiled the Wildcats’ evening with a 12-2 victory.

Joliet West won’t feel bad about putting a damper on the Wildcats, as the victory keeps the Tigers undefeated in Southwest Prairie Conference play at 13-0. It also moves the Tigers’ win streak to 10 games, gives them 21 wins in their past 22 games and improves their overall record to 30-4.

With another game against Plainfield Central on deck for Friday, West is one win away from finishing the regular season undefeated in conference play. Joliet West head coach John Karczewski was excited for the possibility of seeing his seniors close out the regular season in perfect fashion.

“These guys have worked hard for it,” he said. “We had 47 straight scoreless innings until [the sixth inning]. We’d like to finish it out on [our] senior day. That would be awesome”

Jimmy Anderson came up big with two outs in the top of the first. His RBI double scored James Love to put West up 1-0. After a 1-2-3 second, West got on the board again with Young’s two-run homer, which also scored Daniel Lukancic to make it a 3-0 game in a hurry.

An RBI single by Christian Chignoli scored Cael Karczewski in the top of the fifth to extend the lead to 4-0. The game was put out of reach when Karczewski hit a grand slam in the sixth that also scored Young, Lukancic and Peyton Barborek to make it 8-0.

Credit Plainfield Central for never giving up. It responded to the grand slam in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run bomb by Ricky Robinson, which also scored JT Augustyniak to cut the deficit to six.

It didn’t last, though, as Nate Consalvo scored on a bases-loaded walk in the top of the seventh before Barborek did the same the very next at-bat. Zach Chignoli was walked home the following at-bat, and Cade Hovarth scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Sobun right after to give the game its final score.

“I was a little nervous at first with my first varsity start,” pitcher Ryan Lasson said. “After the first inning they had a couple of good hits and just kept battling and battling to try and get ahead of every pitch. ... It was excellent [for the offense to step up]. It meant we could make some mistakes on the mound, because we had guys in the field backing us up and had our amazing offense to keep us going.”

Lasson finished with four scoreless innings. Karczewski finished 2 for 4 with four RBIs and two runs with the grand slam. Anderson went 2 for 3, and Lukancic was 2 for 2.

As for Plainfield Central (16-14, 9-5), it was a disappointing evening for the seniors. Augustyniak led the way with a 2 for 3 performance including a double, and Robinson’s homer was one of eight hits on the day for the Wildcats. It wasn’t enough to overcome some outstanding defense and big-time offensive plays by the Tigers.

Still, playing a tight contest early against a team like Joliet West is a small victory the Wildcats will take.

“We played well early on, and they’re a good team,” Plainfield South head coach Robert Keane said. “They’re going to be the conference champions for a reason. Any mistake you make, they’re not going to let you get away with it. I’m proud of the way our guys continued to put good at-bats together the rest of the game. We’re going to celebrate the good things that we did and hopefully bounce back tomorrow.”