Prep Baseball Report

Lincoln-Way Central Rallies Late, Defeats Naperville Central


Adam Panayotovich
Area Scout

NAPERVILLE, IL - The Naperville Central Redhawks hosted the Lincoln-Way Central Knights on a Wednesday 1 P.M. day game in Naperville, IL. It was a game full of momentum shifts seeing three score changes, with Lincoln-Way Central rallying late to secure the 5-4 victory.

Down by one in the top of the 7th inning, Lincoln-Way Central drew a one out walk by Kyle Labedz. Lead-off hitter Aaron Anderson (Joliet Junior College commit) then roped an RBI double deep to left-center field scoring Labedz, as well as coming in to score himself, courtesy of a throwing error by Naperville Central.

With the lead secured 5-4 in the bottom half of the seventh, Matt Helwig (Wisconsin-Parkside commit) struck out the side and secured the victory for the Knights. Helwig went 2 ⅓ innings, allowing no runners to reach base, striking out four. Earning the no decision for Lincoln-Way Central, Andrew Hancock (Evansville commit) finished with a line of: 4 ⅔ IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K.

In the first inning, Lincoln-Way Central took the lead on a 2-out, 2 RBI single by Jimmy Patock (Joliet Junior College commit). Scoring in the frame was Jacob Blount (Concordia commit) who walked, and Andersen who double to lead off the game. Patock finished 2-for-3 with three RBI on the day. Andersen went 2-for-3 with two doubles, two runs and one RBI.

Labedz and Brandon Bennitt each scored a run and collected a hit apiece for Lincoln-Way Central.

Naperville Central tied the game at two apiece in the third inning with a walk to Tommy Carlsen, a double by Sam Hojnar (Southern Illinois commit) and a single by Payton Thorne. They later took a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning, courtesy of an RBI single from Braden Lindmark. Carlsen, Hojnar and Thorne all collected a hit and scored once for the Redhawks. Lindmark went 2-3 with an RBI and a SB.

Naperville Central starter Jared Suchevitz took a no decision with a line of: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K.

For more in-depth notes from the game - and all other games that we cover - visit the Illinois Scout Blog later.

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