Baseball: Lincoln-Way West’s Connor Essenburg overpowers Lincoln-Way East

NEW LENOX – Lincoln-Way West pitcher Connor Essenburg was working with purpose to start Thursday’s SouthWest Suburban crossover matchup with Lincoln-Way East.

Once he locked in, he cranked things up a notch or two.

Working at an almost furious pace, Essenburg struck out at least two Lincoln-Way East batters in each of the five innings he threw, setting the tone for a 7-1 Lincoln-Way West victory.

In the end, Essenburg would finish with 13 strikeouts and allowed only two hits. Ben Shea closed out the effort with a two-inning relief stint as the Warriors kept their record spotless at 11-0.

“I always pitch with high tempo,” Essenburg said. “I just like to get out there, get in and get back to hitting. I just try to make the innings as quick as possible for my team.”

That tempo, coupled with Essenburg’s overpowering stuff, made life difficult for Lincoln-Way East (6-7). The Griffins scratched out their first hit of the game when Tyler Bell legged out an infield hit in the top of the fourth.

Before that, Essenburg had either struck out or walked (he allowed three free passes) all but one Griffin batter through the first three innings.

“Last year, East was a tough opponent for me, I lost twice to them,” Essenburg said. “All week, I’ve been looking forward to this game, trying to get my get-back.”

For a while, it seemed the only thing that was going to slow Essenburg was a growing pitch count. After allowing a single to James Rea to start the Lincoln-Way East fifth, Essenburg finished with a flourish, striking out the next three batters to end his five-inning stint on the hill.

“Honestly, most of the time I try to go for the strikeouts,” Essenburg said. “But an out is an out. Toward the end of the game I started to notice my pitch count was getting up there, so that’s when I started to throw the get-me-over curveball a little more.”

Lincoln-Way West coach Jake Zajc appreciated his pitcher’s bulldog mentality but hopes they can find a happy medium between success and pitch economy as the season goes along.

“That’s the sharpest he’s looked,” Zajc said. “He did a real nice job, and we needed it for a big game like this. He’s being aggressive, and that’s his mentality. He wanted to go back out there, but that was enough for him, and then Ben Shea came out there and did a nice job too.”

West’s offense wasn’t as inspired as Essenburg’s effort on the mound, but the Warriors got the job done.

They took a 1-0 lead without the benefit of a hit as Jacob Willis led off the first inning with a walk and would come home on a throwing error on the back end of a stolen-base attempt.

A pair of two-out hits in the second and third innings would give Essenburg and the Warriors all the offensive cushion they’d need.

After East starter Tyler Ledvina quickly recorded two strikeouts to start the Warriors second, Willis was hit by a pitch. Essenburg would coax a walk, and Anthony Massa delivered a triple that would score both.

West’s third inning was almost the polar opposite. The Warriors got hits from Lucas Acevedo, Shea and Ian Hazelip, only to see the next two batters strike out. But Willis provided a two-run single to stretch the lead to 5-1.

Bell provided Lincoln-Way East’s only run in the top of the sixth when he walked and moved around the bases scoring on a throwing error.

Bell reached all three times he came up, and James Rea also had two hits for Lincoln-Way East.