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newlenoxpatriot.com sports
the new lenox patriot | May 9, 2019 | 47
fastbreak
Baseball
Knights overcome rough start, roll past Providence
1st and 3
Steve Millar/22nd
Century Media
THREE LOCAL TEAMS
ON LONG WINNING
STREAKS
1. LW co-op girls
lacrosse
Lincoln-Way remained
undefeated
and picked up its
12th straight win,
beating District 230
16-13 on April 29.
Caroline Behrens
(above) scored seven
goals.
2. Providence softball
The Celtics broke a
school record with
their 17th straight
victory, a 19-2 rout
of Trinity, on May 1.
Maggie Joutras had
five RBIs. Providence
also clinched
at least a share of the
GCAC Red title with
the win.
3. LW Central softball
The Knights extended
their winning
streak to 13 with
an 8-0 shutout of
crosstown rival LW
West on May 2 at the
Rosemont Dome.
Amanda Weyh
tossed a complete
game shutout.
Steve Millar, Sports Editor
Just an inning into its
May 1 game at crosstown
rival Providence, Lincoln-
Way Central found itself
down five runs.
Celtics ace and Arizona
State recruit Bryce Barnett
was on the mound.
It was not an enviable
position for the Knights
to be in. In fact, it’s a spot
junior catcher Liam Higgins
doesn’t think Central
could have dug itself out
of earlier in the season.
“Our biggest problem
at the beginning of the
year is when things went
bad, we got down on ourselves,”
Higgins said.
“We’ve got a lot of leadership
that’s developed
since the beginning of the
year and now we get down
and we think, ‘We’re still
in this game.’”
The Knights were certainly
still in it against the
Celtics. They answered
with nine runs in the second
inning, knocking Barnett
out early, and romped
to a 16-6 win in five innings.
“We go down five,
they’ve got their ace going,
we could’ve quit,” Central
coach Mitch Nowicki said.
“But we didn’t. We had the
big second inning and just
built from there.”
It was a stunning turn
of events for Providence
coach Mark Smith.
“We came out with
five runs, felt really good
about it, had our guy on
the mound,” Smith said.
“That’s the first time
in four years I’ve seen
(Barnett) struggle with
his command, but he’ll
bounce back and he’ll be
fine.
“It was just one of those
games where we couldn’t
get them out, and offensively
we haven’t been
putting up enough runs
to be able to keep up in a
game like this.”
While the Knights’ offense
caught fire, senior
lefty Noah Cantleberry
was brilliant in relief.
Cantleberry came into
the game with just one out
recorded in the bottom of
the first. The Celtics (13-
11) led 5-0 and had the
bases loaded for the top of
its lineup.
Cantleberry got a strikeout
and a groundout to
escape the jam and set the
stage for the Knights (14-
8) to come back.
“My mindset was just
to go in, throw strikes, get
ahead of hitters,” Cantleberry
said. “I feel like we
got some momentum that
did carry over a lot. After
that inning, we really came
together as a team, put up
nine runs.”
Cantleberry threw 3 2/3
innings, allowing one run
on two hits while striking
out seven, to get the win.
Central’s offense then
exploded, with a big boost
from the bottom of the
lineup.
The first seven Knights
hitters of the second inning
reached base against
Barnett. Central had one
run in and the bases loaded
when Higgins, the No. 8
hitter, came up.
He smoked a 3-0 pitch
down the right-field line to
drive in two runs and make
it 5-3.
“At the beginning of
the year, I was taking 3-0
pitches, and (Nowicki)
told me, ‘Liam, you’ve got
to swing on 3-0,’” Higgins
said. “That was my first
swing of the year on 3-0.
I knew he was struggling
with his control on offspeed
pitches, and I knew
he was going to throw me
a fastball for a strike because
he didn’t want to
load the bases.”
Riley Murphy followed
with a RBI single.
“It was great,” Nowicki
said. “Liam gets a 3-0 fastball,
huge double. Riley
gets another RBI. When
you get production from
the guys in 7-8-9 spots, it
lights the fire for the rest of
the team.”
Kyle Labedz (3-for-4)
tied the game with a single
and the Knights jumped
on top with RBI singles
from Ryan Kraft and Johnny
McGuire, and a tworun
base hit from Turner
Doran.
The Knights put up another
crooked number in
the fifth inning, scoring six
times to go up by 10.
Doran drove in three
Lincoln-Way Central’s Liam Higgins connects
for a two-run double in the Knights’ 16-6 win over
Providence on May 1. Photos by Steve Millar/22nd
Century Media
Lincoln-Way Central senior Noah Cantleberry
earned the win in relief May 1 as the Knights topped
Providence 16-6.
runs, while Labedz, Kraft,
McGuire, Higgins and
Murphy each had two
RBIs. Every batter in the
Knights’ lineup had at
least one hit.
Barnett and Brennan
Geers had two RBIs each
to lead Providence, while
Jake Messelmann and Jake
Mucha each drove in one
run.
“Tip your cap to them,”
Smith said. “They swung
the bats, they hit the heck
out of it, they came in here
and kicked our butts.”
LISTEN UP
“It was really cool to see my last name on the back and USA
on the front. It was such an honor.”
Jazmin Malinowski - Lincoln-Way Central graduate, on playing for Team USA in the World
University Games in Russia
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• Boys and girls teams from all three Lincoln-
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Index
42 - This Week In
41 - Athlete of the Week
FASTBREAK is compiled by Sports Editor
Steve Millar at s.millar@22ndcm.com.