Big 2nd inning all Lake Park needs to top WW South
One inning erased three weeks of uncertainty for Lake Park's baseball team.
The Lancers scored all their runs in the second inning and played nearly flawless the rest of the game while cruising to a 5-0 victory over Wheaton Warrenville South in the Class 4A Willowbrook regional semifinals Thursday in Villa Park.
Sixth-seeded Lake Park (20-16), which entered the playoffs with only three wins in its previous 12 games, advances to Saturday's regional final to face No. 14 Bartlett, a team the Lancers beat twice during Upstate Eight Conference play in mid-April.
"We didn't pound the ball today, but we will definitely take the win," said Lancers coach Dan Colucci. "We've struggled here over the last couple of weeks, and we'll take them any way we can get them."
A focused and rowdy Lake Park squad broke through for 5 runs in the bottom of the second inning, a burst started by Peter Spear's RBI single. David Dial followed with another run-scoring single to make it 2-0.
WW South starter Jason Schuman (4-5) nearly emerged without further damage, but Zach Tsiodras had a huge two-out, 2-run single. Matt Kaiser added another RBI single to quickly boost the lead to 5-0.
Chasing 5 runs against Lake Park starter Rick Palandri (3-1) proved tough. The senior lefty allowed 2 hits and walked four in 5 innings of work. In 2 innings of relief, Trevor Koehn didn't allow a ball hit out of the infield.
"I don't have a fear in the world when my offense is hitting like that," Palandri said of the 5-run cushion. "We've been talking all week that this is our second season. We've been doing all these things in practice to get our spark back, and I think we found it."
The Lancers' errorless defense showed that spark in the field. They turned two double plays and made a nifty play in the fourth inning when they cut down a runner who made too wide a turn around first base on a single.
WW South (17-19) put a runner on base in every inning except the seventh but couldn't generate a run. In fact the Tigers never got a runner to third base.
"They were sharp," said WW South coach Tim Brylka. "They had the one inning and as well as they were playing defensively, that was all they needed. We just couldn't find the holes and swing the bats a little bit."