Joliet West fends off Bolingbrook rally to win second in a row

JOLIET – It’s no secret the Joliet West baseball team has had its struggles this season. A 2-2 start was followed by a nine-game losing streak as the Tigers attempted to turn youth into experience.

There’s still a long season ahead, but the last two games at least, Joliet West appears to be turning the corner.

A day after handing Minooka just its second loss of the season, Joliet West earned a home victory over Bolingbrook 8-6 on Tuesday.

Joliet West (4-11) got a great performance on the mound from Ryan Lasson. The senior struck out 11 batters while only allowing four hits. All four runs scored while he was in the game were unearned while the offense compiled eight hits. Daniel Lukancic led the offensive effort with a 2 for 4 day with two RBIs.

Tigers coach John Karczewski is hopeful the team is finally building that momentum. Of his team’s nine losses during the slide, three came by just one run and the Tigers were rarely blown out, as they held four opponents to five runs or less.

“We’re taking a couple of steps forward,” Karczewski said. “We’ve played some solid opponents this year. ... We’re getting into conference so we need to be going on all cylinders. It doesn’t get any easier with Sandburg and Oswego East this weekend. We’re not feeling good about ourselves, we’ve just got to get hot. We’re going to try and play clean baseball and get it on track.”

Things were mostly on track Tuesday as the Tigers jumped out to a 7-1 advantage through three inning. After a scoreless fourth, Bolingbrook managed to put three on the board in the fifth when Pharrell Weekley scored on an error while TJ Marshall doubled in Thomas McDermott and Adrian Hernandez.

Quintin Guardia extended the Joliet West lead to 8-4 with an RBI single to score Maddux Chiquito in the bottom of the inning to take momentum back for West.

But Bolingbrook (3-7-1) refused to quit. After DJ Berry scored on an error, McDermott scored on Jayvyn Gray’s sacrifice fly to pull the Raiders within two in the seventh. The rally came up short, but Bolingbrook coach Craig Dixon was proud of the effort his club showed.

“The guys don’t quit,” he said. “We’re actually playing better and learning now as we go into conference play next week and that’s the key.”

As for Joliet West, the victory showed there are still areas for improvement. The defense committed four errors and the Tigers were fortunate that the Raiders committed six of their own that they were able to take advantage of.

“We’ve got to clean some stuff up,” Karczewski said. “We’re trying to get some young guys some opportunities to step up. Sometimes they can and sometimes they can’t, but we’ve got to give them some opportunities to play a little bit because of lot of them are inexperienced. That’s OK, we’re just looking to build a consistent lineup.”

Joliet West’s next contest will come Thursday at Oswego East. Bolingbrook’s next game will be Thursday against Plainfield South, but Dixon said the team isn’t thinking about that.

“What I’m trying to teach these guys is that who they’re playing against is the guy looking back at them in the mirror,” he said. “If they can have mindfulness and an approach then they can beat whoever.”