By Drake Skleba

 

NEW LENOX ? In a Class 4A Lockport Regional play-in game, Plainfield Central opened up a 6-0 lead after two innings and coasted to a 9-4 victory over the hosts from Lincoln-Way Central.

 

Plainfield Central struck for two runs in the first against L-W Central junior right hander Matt Doherty. The first Wildcat run scored on a wild pitch and Wildcat senior C Brandon Mackowiak made it 2-0 with a booming RBI double. The ?Cats added on four in the second, highlighted by a big two-run double by junior Eric DeLoach. No. 9 Wildcat hitter junior Steve Heffernan singled home the first Wildcat run of the inning.

 

?We executed real well and Justin pitched well for us,? said DeLoach. ?We all really put the bat on the ball today and this will give us momentum going into the game with Lockport on Thursday.?

 

On the mound for Plainfield Central, starting pitcher senior lefty Steve Kenealy (5 1P, 4R, 5H, 1ER, 7K, 4BB) was mowing down the Knights with a very effective breaking ball. The Knights scored against Kenealy in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Knight senior Evan Branyik (2-for-2, 2BB, 2RBI).

 

?I had a good off-speed pitch going for me today,? said Kenealy. ?I was able to really keep them off-balance today. My strikeout pitch definitely was my curveball.?

 

Plainfield Central answered with three in the top of the fourth to open up a 9-1 lead. Wildcat 1B Joe Sparacio (2-for-3, 2B, 3R, RBI) singled home a run and later scored in the inning. Wildcat senior DH Evan Gallegos ripped a two-run single off of Knight sophomore LHP reliever Grant Bartell.

 

?We haven?t played well this season,? said Sparacio. ?We really put it all together today and maybe we can make a run in the regional. I am really excited about playing Lockport on Thursday.?

 

Lincoln-Way Central would pick up three unearned runs against Kenealy in the

bottom of the fourth.

 

Bartell would allow only the one single, to Gallegos, in his four shutout innings of relief for the Knights.

 

Plainfield Central received a stellar relief outing from junior RHP Tim Blake, who blanked the Knights in the sixth and seventh in relief of Kenealy (2-7).

 

?We put everything together today. We go some key hits and we played well defensively,? said Blake. ?I tried to do whatever it takes to help the team.?

 

Plainfield Central (11-20) will meet the regional hosts, Lockport (22-12), on Thursday at Lockport?s Ed Flink Field in a regional semifinal at 4:30.

 

?Justin (Kenealy) threw very well for us today,? said Plainfield Central head coach Bob Dobbert. ?Justin did a real nice job of keeping their hitters off-balance. We really swung the bats well today. Tim Blake did a great job in relief for us and we look forward to playing Lockport on Thursday.?

 

Lincoln-Way Central closes out the season at 14-18.

 

?I was proud of the way the kids battled,? said L-W Central head coach Sean Bieterman. ?It was too tough to overcome the early 9-1 hole we put ourselves

in. Grant Bartell is going to do great things for us in the future. We have a number of kids coming back next year and I think we wll be very good in 2012.

We will take a few days to regroup and then get started back to work.?