By Drake Skleba
For the Bugle
Junior Conor Wright. Junior Henry Schuler. Junior Jack Wiers. Junior Luc Melnick and senior, Josh Bolek.
In Joliet Catholic Academy’s non-conference affair on Saturday night with Lincoln-Way West, Hilltopper head coach Jared Voss reached out to the seldom-used members of his pitching staff.
“The seldom-used five” held Lincoln-Way West (17-8) to one run on a wild pitch, four hits and struck out a combined eight Warrior hitters in their combined seven innings of work.
On a more-like late-February Saturday night weather-wise, the Joliet “seldom-used five” were magnificent in the Hilltoppers’ 2-1 win in eight innings over the Warriors.
Chris Knapczyk’s walk-off single drove home Greg Ziegler, who had tripled with the game-winning run, all after two outs for the 23rd Hilltopper win of the season.
Last Saturday, Knapczyk’s walk-off single beat Carmel 4-3 in eight innings. In a must win ESCC South game at Marist, on Thursday, Zieglers’ two-out singl, in the seventh tied the game at two.
In the ninth, Ziegler singled home the eventual game-winning run of Thursday’s 4-2 win over the Redhawks.
So, the late-inning heroics were just treated as a common occurrence, at about 10 o’clock at Route 66 Stadium.
Wright fired two shutout innings for the Hilltoppers, striking out three and walking three, all in the second inning.
The Hilltoppers (23-7) scored the first run of the game on a double-play ball off the bat of Mike Gurka.
Shuler replaced Wright in the third and was lights out for JCA. Schuler allowed one hit and struck out four Warrior batters.
“A really good win for us and “Knap” walked it off for us,” Schuler said. “All of us who haven’t seen a lot of action this season, really pitched well for us, tonight.”
Wiers fired a scoreless fifth inning. Melnick allowed the Warriors to tie the game at one on a wild pitch with Mike Kennedy at the plate, scoring Bob Jackson who singled.
With Brock Berry at third base who also singled, Kennedy crushed a rocket at Gurka in deep right field. Gurka snared the rocket waist- high and fired an equally high-velocity throw to Hilltopper catcher, Nate Gerhke.
Gerhke put the tag on Berry, trying to score for the 9-2 double-play to end the Warrior sixth and preserve the 1-1 tie.
“Having caught the ball waist-high, made it more difficult to get off a great throw,” Gurka said. “I was able to get off a good throw and Nate Gerhke, is such a great athlete, who made the catch and was able to put the tag on Berry, for the double-play.”
Bolek pitched out of a mess in the Warrior seventh.
Senior Zak Gould knocked the Warriors down 1-2-3 in the top of the eighth and picked up the win for the Hilltoppers.
Having just two hits, with singles by junior Dan Wuestenfeld and Knapczyk, the first two Hilltoppers were retired in the bottom of the eighth.
With two outs, Ziegler ripped a shot to the left field wall and raced to third for a two-out triple.
“Once again, I just try to slow everything down at the plate,” Ziegler said. “Paymaster got one up and I was able to hit one in the gap. It all started for us with our pitchers tonight, who all threw strikes and were the key to our win.”
“Monday is against Benet, who is our next competition. We have to get that one, next.”
Knapczyk followed with a blast over the Warrior’s right fielders’ head, as Ziegler waltzed home with the game-winner.
“Our pitching was amazing! One run!,” Knapczyk said. “it wasn’t a good night to hit with the wind blowing in. I just went up to the plate with hopes of putting the ball in play. Henry Shuler was lights out for us tonight. He was getting his curve ball over and was great.”
“On Monday against Benet, we just have to play well and hopefully things go our way.”
Up next for the Hilltoppers is a 4:30 p.m. ESCC South contest on Monday with Benet (9-19, 2-10). A win for the Hilltoppers (23-7, 9-3) would give them a share of the ESCC South championship, with Marist (18-8, 10-3).
The Hilltoppers have all of the conference tie-breakers over Marist and thus would face ESCC North Championship winner Notre Dame (13-8, 10-3 North) on Tuesday. The Championship Game will be played at a site to be determined on Monday night.
“It was just awesome to see all our pitcher’s compete, the way they did tonight,” Voss said. “None of them have pitched a lot of innings for us, so it’s even more credit to them, for how well they pitched.”
“Greg and Chris came up and did it, when it counted. A triple and a walk-off single. That was really nice! We have good momentum heading into next week. We just have to keep grinding and things will work out.”