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 Lincoln's baseball Railers found their bats this week, beating
Lanphier High School twice.
The 'Splitters found their bats against the Lions, winning 9-0 on
Tuesday and 10-2 on Wednesday.
“The good thing about playing a team like (Lanphier), although we
are supposed to beat them, is it gets you rallied-up and going,”
Junior catcher Jake Konczyk said after a two RBI game on Wednesday.
“We had some really good plays out here, defensively and
offensively, and I think that can carry us over.”
Konczyk started the Railers' scoring splurge Wednesday with a
two-run base hit in the first inning.
He lead the effort to put the game on ice with a perfectly executed
bunt in the sixth.
 “It was nice to see some small-ball stuff happen,” Lincoln Head
Coach Pat Hake said Konczyk's bunt was the first of three that lead
to five runs. “A bases loaded squeeze, that's not something I want
to do everyday, but I like (our guys) in that position.”
The Railers bunted Lanphier into frustration Wednesday, but more
importantly to Hake, the team found their bats again.
“Guys are almost jogging to the plate now, where as last week the
bats seemed a bit heavier,” Hake added.
It will be a test to see if the Railers, who are in fourth place in
the Central State Eight, can keep that momentum with games against
Springfield, Mahomet-Seymour, and Washington still to come.
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Heat Join Railers
The dugout was a bit crowded for Railsplitters Wednesday, as dozens
of possible future Splitter players joined the varsity team.
The Lincoln Heat youth baseball teams took the field with the high schoolers, and spent the game in the dugout.
Heat league director Josh Baker says the idea for a pro-day of sorts
came to him just a few weeks ago.
“We want to improve Lincoln baseball,” Baker said. “We want to
develop fundamentals at the lower levels, getting the older levels
to be competitive, and then hopefully when we turn them over to the
high school the kids are ready to go.”
In addition to a pre-game introduction, the Heat players got a
chance to sit with the older players and even collect some
autographs.
[Benjamin Yount]
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