Jake Lenti hits ninth in Mount Carmel’s batting order, but the senior outfielder prefers to look at it another way.
“I’ve got to be the second leadoff guy,” Lenti said. “That’s what coach (Brian) Hurry tells me all the time. I want to get on base and get those big guys at the top of the order up there to drive me in.”
Lenti did his job Wednesday. He sparked three-run rallies in both the second and fourth innings and reached base all four plate appearances. The host Caravan rolled to a 10-3 win over Montini in a Catholic League crossover.
“I just try to go out there and set an example for the younger guys,” Lenti said. “We have a lot of young, talented guys and I try to show them how we do it here at Mount Carmel.”
The Caravan (14-2, 6-0) already led 2-0 when Lenti came to the plate with a runner at third in the second inning. He ripped a 2-0 pitch into the right-center field gap for a RBI triple.
“I saw that (Montini starting pitcher Danny Mallory) was throwing everyone outside so I was looking for it there,” Lenti said. “I got ahead 2-0 and I saw a pitch I liked and put the barrel on it.”
Lenti scored on a single from Jeremy Houston, who was 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs. Alek Thomas came home on a wild pitch to make it 5-0.
In the fifth, with the Caravan leading 7-1, Lenti singled and scored on a double from A.J. Lewis. That started another three-run inning as Lewis scored on a groundout and Bobby Seymour doubled in one of his three RBIs.
Lenti also singled in the third and was hit by a pitch in the sixth.
“It’s important for the bottom of our order to get on base for A.J., Alek and Jeremy,” Hurry said. “Jake did a great job getting on base. From one through nine in our order, we want to have competitive at-bats.”
The Caravan scored seven runs on nine hits in three innings against Mallory. Neil Novosel was 2-for-4 with a RBI single and Seamus Sjostrom reached base three times.
“We have a lot of grit,” Lenti said. “We really battle. We don’t give up any easy outs anywhere in our lineup. That makes us tough to slow down.”
The run support was more than enough for senior Connor Spear, who allowed three earned runs on four hits over six innings. He struck out five and walked two while taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning.
“My fastball felt like it had a bunch of jump on it,” Spear said. “I was throwing it a lot and then the second time through the order, I started using my slider more and was getting kids with that pitch. The offense scoring all those early runs for me helped a lot, too.”
Steve Millar is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.
