Anthony Batshon’s walk-off hit completes Lockport’s comeback against Oak Park-River Forest

LOCKPORT – After an emotional, 6-0 win over Mt. Carmel on Saturday, Lockport coach Scott Malinowski acknowledged that Monday’s game against Oak Park-River Forest had the makings of a setback game.

For six innings, that’s what it looked like it would be.

Then the seventh inning happened.

Trailing by two entering the final inning, a pair of key plays knotted things up with one out. A second out set Anthony Batshon up to play the hero. Cue the bat signal; he smacked an RBI single to score Bryce Flood and win the game for the Porters 5-4.

Lockport (5-1) has gotten off to an impressive start this season. Aside from a 10-0 setback to Ventura, the Porters entered Monday unblemished. Most of the game, while the pitching and defense did their part, the batters and base runners didn’t look as they had the first six contests. They entered the seventh with four hits before putting up five in the final inning.

While the Porters will want more offense than that to come as the year goes on, they’ll take a solid win against a solid team after struggling on offense for six innings.

“We challenged the guys before the sixth inning,” Malinowski said. “We said it was going to come down to whoever wanted it more and they rose to that challenge in the last inning. We had the right guys up at the right time.”

Malinowski acknowledged that the Porters’ intensity was absent for much of the contest, but he also saw a silver lining in still coming away with a victory.

“Good teams are able to win ball games like that,” he said. “There was no momentum to it, and we had a pretty emotional one on Saturday with a great crowd. This was the perfect spot for a letdown. ... You never know what you’re going to get with a group of teenagers, so for them to come together at the end showed a lot of heart and grit.”

The final inning started with a double by Nick Moerman, who scored on an RBI single by Tommy Miller. Flood then singled and courtesy runner Adam Kozak later scored on a passed ball to tie the game. With a pair of outs and Flood on third, Batshon faced a 2-2 count when Peter Farren delivered a slider.

“I kind of blacked out to be honest,” Batshon said with a laugh. “I honestly kind of just stuck my bat out and made contact.”

Once he got his vision back, Batshon recognized where he’d learned how to come through in those kind of spots.

“I just want to thank the coaches,” Batshon said. “We honestly work on that sort of stuff in practice all the time. It really paid off in that at-bat.

Martin Kinnane, Nate Gorecki, Matt Fox and Jack Schiek combined for six strikeouts and just five hits allowed, including none for Fox or Schiek. Great pitching still needs an offense to come through, however, and Batshon did exactly that when it mattered the most.

“He’s a senior that’s worked really hard,” Malinowski said. “It’s nice to see him come through in that situation.”

Batshon acknowledged that the offense will need to be more consistent moving forward, but he also said Lockport has something no other team can match.

“We’re really hungry and we want it bad,” he said. “There’s no other team in the entire state or country that wants it as bad as we do.”