Baseball: Minooka fights off late charge from Plainfield North

MINOOKA – Minooka dropped the first two games of its three-game Southwest Prairie Conference series with rival Plainfield North heading into Thursday’s encounter between the two, already riding its longest losing streak of the season at two.

It looked fairly likely that the Indians wouldn’t have any trouble making sure the stretch didn’t continue beyond that, as it broke out to early multiple-run leads and carried a three-run advantage into the top of the seventh inning.

But Plainfield North managed to put a little scare into the Indians, plating two runs while leaving the potential game tying and go-ahead runs on the bases before succumbing to Minooka 7-6.

“We’ve had a hard time as of late closing games. We’ve had leads and we’ve let them get away,” Minooka coach Jeff Petrovic said. “So tonight is, as scary as it got in the end, maybe a good step forward.”

Minooka (17-8, 5-3 SPC West) appeared to get nothing more than an insurance run when Nate McBroom lofted a solo home run just over the fence in the bottom of the sixth inning to stretch Minooka’s lead to 7-4.

But it wasn’t that simple as the Tigers (13-10, 4-5) had one more run in them in an attempt to sweep the three-game set. Minooka reliever Ben Muhich had done an excellent job of keeping Plainfield North at bay since entering in the fifth inning, but a pair of walks and just missing out on a double play turn extended the Tigers’ seventh inning.

That set the stage for Kyle Darlington to deliver a two-run single to slice the lead to 7-6 before Muhich, a North Central College commit, struck out Michael Schweihs to finally put the Tigers away. It was Muhich’s fifth strikeout during his three innings of work.

“Ben’s been really good all year,” Petrovic said. “He had a tough one the other day at Plainfield North, so it was good to see him bounce back, and he did a great job. He’s just a mild-mannered, level-headed kid, and North Central is getting a good one with him.”

Minooka appeared on the verge of putting the game out of reach in its half of the third inning. The Indians connected for four extra-base hits in the inning, including a two-run triple by Nate George and a two-run homer by Isaac Goddard. Brayden Zilis and Noah Pharo also added doubles in the inning.

That offensive surge put Minooka up 5-1 at the time, and Indians starter CJ Deckinga had largely kept Plainfield North in check over the first three innings, but the Tigers started to chip away with two runs in the fourth and another in the fifth.

But the top of Minooka’s lineup engineered another run of its own in the fourth, this time on an RBI double from George, one of three extra-base hits for the senior in the game.

“Starting off the week, our defense wasn’t so hot, and our offense wasn’t so hot,” George said. “But this game I really saw it turning around. Even though we didn’t win the series, we still ended it on a good note.”

Although Minooka exacted some revenge on Plainfield North with the win Thursday, the two previous losses to the Tigers completely upset the apple cart in the SPC West race. Yorkville has for the time being wrested the lead away from Minooka, but the race is tight with five of the six teams in the division sitting with two to four losses in league play.

George is confident efforts like Thursday’s should help put his team back on track to make a run at the conference hardware.

“We came into this with two series wins before and I think this kind of a humbled us a little bit,” George said. “And now we know maybe you aren’t as good as you think you are, so hopefully we can be more humble about it and capitalize on that and hopefully walk away with a conference championship.”