Baseball: Lockport blanks Lincoln-Way East
By Dick Goss dgoss@stmedianetwork.com April 13, 2012 11:44PM
Lockport pitcher Evan Marten. | Michael DiNovo~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: June 14, 2012 1:51AM
When Lockport junior right-hander Evan Martens noticed the home-plate umpire was giving him the outside corner, he drew the obvious conclusion.
“I threw the ball there a lot,” he said after firing a four-hit shutout Friday in a 2-0 SouthWest Suburban Blue victory over Lincoln-Way East at Ed Flink Field. That avenged the 4-3, eight-inning loss to the Griffins (9-5, 1-1) the No. 5 Porters (9-5, 1-1) suffered two nights earlier.
Martens (2-2) worked economically, throwing 87 pitches, 52 for strikes.
“I was using the curve as my setup pitch,” he said. “I knew I had to fix the mistakes I made the last time I pitched last week. We had to get back to .500 (in the league) and stay in the race.”
“Evan did a great job getting ahead of hitters,” Lockport coach Andy Satunas said.
East stranded two runners, both in the fourth inning. But Martens retired the Nos. 4 and 5 hitters to escape.
“(Pitching coach Butch) Markelz stresses to me to get ahead of hitters especially when I’m in trouble,” he said. “I knew I didn’t have to strike people out because my defense had my back.”
Martens struck out five and walked one. Catcher Derek Bangert threw out two would-be base-stealers and flipped to Martens to retire a runner attempting to score on a potential passed ball.
Lockport scored in the second and fourth innings against tough-luck loser Brandon Bollman (2-2) on singles by Austin Kolmodin and Ron Sessler. The first of two Dan Sullivan hits set up the first run and Bangert’s double led to the second.
“Bollman pitched great, the best I’ve seen him,” East coach Paul Babcock said. “They got some timely baserunning and hitting, their pitcher did a great job and we didn’t get timely hits and lost a couple of baserunners.
“But this is what you want, to face tough competition. I’m pleased with how well we played.”
