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28 | July 5, 2018 | The Lockport Legend sports lockportlegend.com Athlete of the Week 10 Questions with Luke Bentley Luke Bentley will be a senior at Lockport Township this fall and is expected to be a pitcher for the Porters baseball team next spring. What is your personal goal in playing summer league baseball for the Porters? I didn’t get to pitch on the varsity at all this past spring. We just had a lot of senior pitchers who were better, but I’m glad for the summer and an opportunity to show what I have. You allowed no earned runs in three innings of work as the Porters defeated Lincoln-Way West to win the title game of the Lockport Porter Wood Bat Summer Classic. How did it feel to win that? It felt really good, especially the way the young guys performed. I’ve got a feeling that we’re going to be really good next year. How did you get involved playing baseball? I first started playing T-ball when I was 3 at First Church of the Nazarene in Lemont. My brother, Josh, and I both started there, and we have been playing ever since. He plays middle infield and has been on the varsity since he was a freshman. How is it playing alongside your twin brother? It has its moments. We’ve always played on the same team, except for one summer [2012] when we were 11, and we played on separate teams. It’s a family thing, and that wasn’t fun. How long have you been pitching? Since I was 11. I had played third base, and I wanted to do something new, so I tried it and enjoyed it. Do you play any other sports? Randy Whalen/22nd Century Media I played basketball from fifth grade through freshman year of high school. Then I concentrated more on baseball, but I still play intramural basketball for fun. What is it about the game of baseball that makes it the sport for you? It’s a mental grind. I’ve been playing it my whole life, and I like the team concept of baseball. It’s like having a whole bunch of brothers with you, and that’s why I like it. What do you enjoy best about pitching? I like to have the pressure to go out and throw strikes. I also love having the guys make plays behind you and get the outs. What have you learned from Lockport baseball coach Andy Satunas? I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned to appreciate the game and to become a better person. He always sets high standards, and he’s a very smart baseball coach. He always wants us to perform as a team. What is the best thing about being an athlete at Lockport? Lockport has a great legacy. I love to be a part of that legacy. Sports at Lockport are a huge deal. Interview by Freelance Reporter Randy Whalen Looking to have a garage sale this year? Call the classified department or fax in your form below! • Goes in all 7 Southwest newspapers • 4 lines of information (28 characters per line) $42.00 Single Family Payment Method ̌ Check enclosed ̌ Money Order ̌ Credit Card Please cut this form out and mail or fax it back to us at: 22 nd Century Media 11516 W. 183 rd St Suite #3 Unit SW Orland Park, IL 60467 $44.00 Multi Family Ad Copy Here (print) Name Address City/State/Zip Phone Credit Card Orders Only Card # Signature Phn: 708.326.9170 • Fax: 708.326.9179 www.22ndcenturymedia.com • Additional lines only a $1.95 • Borders only an additional $1.00 • FREE GARAGE SALE KIT $47.00 Subdivision Circle One $52.00 Estate Sale Exp.
lockportlegend.com sports the Lockport Legend | July 5, 2018 | 29 Youth Baseball Triple play caps off wild tourney win for Cobras Lockport Cobras use blow torches to dry field, take home tourney title Max Lapthorne, Editor It took a few blow torches, a game-ending triple play and numerous hours of field maintenance, but at the end of it all, the 10U Lockport Cobras were the champions of the Lockport Lockdown tournament. This year’s Lockport Lockdown tournament — hosted by the Cobras — started out smoothly on Monday, June 18, with the opening festivities and several skills competitions. The host Lockport Cobras even had players win two of the contests, with Jeffrey Bruining winning the home run derby and Sean Goacher taking home the title of fastest man. Then came the rain. The downpour washed out all the games on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and only a few games were squeezed in on Wednesday, according to Bryon Mane, the 10U Lockport Cobras head coach and tournament director. After several days of rain pounded the field, the prospect of finishing the tournament was looking bleak. “It was a lake,” Mane said of the field. “You could have fished in this thing.” But even though the field looked more like a retention pond than a baseball diamond, Mane and the other team dads were determined to get the field into a playable condition. No matter what it took, they were going to make the Lockport Lockdown happen. In this case, it meant working on the fields for three days and coming up with an unconventional method of drying off the playing surface. “Once we got the water off, we said, ‘that’s great, but this field is never going to dry,’” Mane said. “So, we came up with the brilliant idea of renting roofers blow torches.” Mane and a number of dads took the torches to the diamond for hours before it was dry enough to be able Lockport Cobras coaches and parents use roofers blow torches to dry out the field June 22 in preparation for the Lockport Lockdown tournament. Photo submitted to host games. The time and effort put in by Mane and the parents who volunteered was driven simply by an obligation they felt to put on the best tournament possible for everyone involved, Mane said, noting that many youth baseball tournaments are now held by large companies that will cancel tournaments after a game or two without giving a refund. “We did not want to see that happen to any of the teams that were coming out,” Mane said. “We care a lot about the boys; we wanted the boys to play and get their tournaments in, and we wanted the other teams to get their money’s worth and to have a worthwhile experience.” The Cobras may have been gracious tournament hosts, but they were anything but pleasant to their opponents on the diamond. They stormed their way to the championship game of the six-team bracket, beating the neighboring Homer Heat in the semifinal. But it was the championship game that produced the highlight of the tournament. The Orland Park Warriors stood between the Cobras and the top spot in their own tournament. The Warriors were the higher seed, so they assumed the role of the home team; but they wanted more than just the last at-bat. “They were the higher seed, so even though we were on our home field, we were the visitors, and they asked us — or told us basically — at the beginning of the game they wanted our dugout,” Mane said. “So basically they threw us out of our own dugout.” Using their relegation to the visitor’s dugout as motivation, the Cobras built a semi-comfortable lead going into the final inning of play. But trouble started brewing quickly as the Warriors loaded up the bases with nobody out. “As the boy came up with the bases loaded, I was thinking we might need to make a pitching change; we might need to make a couple adjustments here,” Mane said. “And then everything happened so fast.” What happened was a laser line drive up the middle that pitcher Jack Schiek snagged, recording the first out. He quickly noticed the runner on third base had strayed too far from the bag, so he fired the ball to third baseman Michael Mane who stepped on the bag for the second out. That is when things got strange. The ball was hit so hard that Mane thought it was a one-hopper, so he attempted to make a play on the runner going home — who was already out after being doubled off third base — by tossing the ball to catcher Jonathan Schlender. Instead of being confused by the decision to throw the ball home, Schlender alertly noticed the runner on second base was caught in no-mans-land and chucked the ball to his shortstop, Ethan Bielski. From there, Bielski and Michael Mane executed a good old-fashioned pickle to complete the triple play. “I caught it and I looked immediately to second base and just threw it,” Schlender said of his role in the wild play. “The runner at second was just standing there, so I just threw it to [Bielski].” Bryon Mane has been coaching for a quarter-century at all levels ranging from high school to T- ball, but he has never witnessed something like the final play of this year’s Lockport Lockdown. “It was crazy,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a triple play live in my life… My adrenaline was going so high, that after it was over, I knew we won, because I knew we got the third out, but it took me a few moments to recollect how that triple play unfolded because it happened so fast.” Jonathan Lopez, a second baseman and right fielder for the Cobras, wasn’t on the field when it happened, and he had his doubts that his teammates would pull off the triple play. But when the tag was applied to end the game, all those doubts were quickly erased. “I just ran out of the dugout and it was a big surprise,” Lopez said. “It was amazing.” The celebration that ensued looked more like it belonged on a Major League Baseball diamond in October than a blow-dried little league field in mid-June. “It was an amazing celebration, [like] the kids just won the World Series,” Bryon Mane said. “... The kids knew that they had it, because they all threw their mitts up in the air and all charged into a little huddle around each other, and that’s all she wrote.” The championship game was the last time those 10U Lockport Cobras will take that field together, so it was only fitting that the coaches, parents and players combined to make it such a special ending. “I had some tears in my eyes before I spoke to the boys at the end,” Bryon Mane said. “I don’t know that there was a dry eye in the house to be honest with you.” Athlete of the Month Lincoln-Way East senior water polo player wins June honor Bill Jones, Managing Editor For Jared Bruni, water polo is in the family. Following in the footsteps of his mother, who played the sport in college, Bruni got started in the pool roughly eight years ago and was a big part of the Griffins’ success last season. His dedication — he plans to continue with a club team in college — recently earned him the attention of area voters, as he claimed 22nd Century Media’s Southwest Chicago Athlete of the Month crown for June. The Athlete of the Month competition pits featured Athlete of the Week selections from our south suburban newspapers against one another in an online voting contest. The next contest is to begin Tuesday, July 10. To vote, visit LockportLegend. com, hover over the “Sports” menu tab and click “Athlete of the Month.” Readers can vote once per session per valid email address. Voting ends at 5 p.m. July 25. All athletes featured in the June Athlete of the Week sports interviews are automatically entered into the contest. Jared Bruni — a senior on the Lincoln-Way East water polo team — won the June Athlete of the Month competition for publisher 22nd Century Media’s Southwest Chicago branch. Photo Submitted
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