By Randy Whalen

Bobby Malinowski had one of the best baseball moments of his young life. 

Against his dad's team. 

Malinowski mashed the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Joliet West a thrilling 8-7 victory over Lockport Township in the title game of the WJOL/Don Ladas Memorial Tournament. 

That took place on a cool, gray, windy Saturday afternoon, April 4, at Slammers Stadium in Joliet. It gave the Tigers (6-2-1) their first-ever championship in the tourney. 

It was an emotional day for all involved, but especially for the Malinowski family. That's because Bobby's dad, Scott Malinowski, is Lockport's head coach.

So what was the Saturday night dinner in the Malinowski house going to be like?

"It'll be fun," Bobby Malinowski smiled afterward. "But we persevered. It was a hard-fought game. We all picked each other up, all game. It just feels great."

Senior Henry Young led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to center. Junior Marco A Rodríguez, Jr came in as a courtesy runner and went to third when senior Sean Hogan's sacrifice bunt was thrown away, putting runners on second and third with no outs. 

That brought up Malinowski, a senior second baseman, who had three hits in his first four at-bats. 

So would his dad choose to walk him to set up a force out at any base? Nope.

"Yeah, I thought they were going to walk me," Bobby Malinowski said. “But as soon as they didn’t intentionally walk me, I was looking for strikes right off the bat.

"I’m grateful that they gave me the opportunity, and I’m just grateful to be in that position to start with."

Jack Schiek, the sixth Porter pitcher, got ahead of Malinowski 0-2. But the next pitch was roped into right center for a line drive, walkoff single. Malinowski had a huge smile as he rounded first, pumped his fist, and was mobbed by his teammates.  

It was a bittersweet moment for Scott Malinowski, who was emotional.

"No, our philosophy isn't to back away from anyone," Scott Malinowski said of not walking his son in that situation. Whether it be him or anyone else, we wanted to go attack and get them.

"Obviously, it hurts. But it's about more than wins and losses. I'm happy for Bobby and happy for them. A lot of those kids grew up coming over to the house. I get emotional having that moment."

There is a great connection with the Malinowski family between Joliet West and Lockport. Scott was quite a player as a shortstop in the 90s, graduating from Joliet West in 1994. He has his picture on the Wall of Fame there.

He did even better in college, starting all four years (1995-1998) for the Bobcats of Division I Ohio University in the MidAmerican Conference. He finished his career with an outstanding senior season, which saw him playing in 61 games (2nd all-time for a season), batting .385 with 75 hits, including 17 doubles (4th all-time for a season).

He still sits ninth in career games played (206) and is fourth in doubles (53) in the Bobcat record book. After graduating from Ohio, Malinowski played two seasons of pro ball in the Mets organization for the Gulf Coast Mets in the Gulf Coast League and the Capital City Bombers (R) in the South Atlantic League.

Scott Malinowski has been the head coach at Lockport since 2022. To add to the whole legacy and impact of the moment, his dad and Bobby's grandfather, Bill, was an All-State outfielder at Lockport in 1961. 

Joliet West coach John Karczewski, who has coached his sons at the school, appreciated the moment between the Malinowski family.

"That is the true meaning of baseball right there," Karczewski said. "Mal vs Mal. It brought a tear to my eye."

This was the second time that the Tigers have played for the tourney championship. The other time was in 2018. Their opponent? Lockport, which won with a 10-3 victory on Saturday, March 31, at Flink Field in Lockport.

However, when it was still one athletic program, Joliet Township shared the 2007 title with Providence.

There was no sharing this season. Even if it looked like Lockport (5-5) had all the momentum, scoring three runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game at 7-7. The tying hit was a 2-out, 2-strike double to right by Schiek.

But Hogan, who entered with two outs in the seventh and went the rest of the way to get the win, got a fly out to end the inning. Both teams had opportunities after that. Particularly Lockport, which loaded the bases on a pair of errors and a walk in the eighth. But, with one out, hit into an inning-ending double play on an infield fly rule pop-up, which was dropped, and the runner tried to score from third and was thrown out. 

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first, the Tigers plated four runs. Keegan Schwarting had the big blow, a 3-run double to center field. He later scored on a passed ball.

Schwarting was named the tournament MVP. The junior third baseman shared an emotional hug with his mom, Lisa, after the game. 

"I appreciate her being at all my games," Schwarting said of his mom. "We did get a little down, because we weren’t expecting that seventh inning to happen. But we just trusted in ourselves, believed in our teammates, and we put pressure on them and made it happen."

Lockport scored a trio of runs in the top of the fourth to tie the game. But the Tigers tallied three of their own in the bottom of the fourth. Daniel Lukancic had a sacrifice fly to right, and fellow senior Brayden Myers managed to bring home two more with a two-out triple to center.

Junior Kaden O’Leary, who was 4-for-4, along with seniors Adam Kozak and Drew Satunas, who had a pair of RBI, were all named All-Tournament for Lockport. The Porters, who have won four tournament championships, defeated Plainfield East 7-3 and Providence 11-3 to advance to the title game.

Besides Schwarting winning the MVP, Lukancic (2-for-4), Malinowski (4-for-5), and junior Andrew Markun made the All-Tournament team. Junior Michael Murphy (3-for-5), along with Lukancic, Malinowski, and Myers (2-for-3), all had multi-hits as the Tigers tallied 14 hits against Lockport.

Coming into the tourney at 3-2-1, the title game win capped quite three days for Joliet West. On Thursday, April 2, the Tigers won a 2-1 game in 8-innings with runs in the bottom of the sixth and last of the eighth over Lincoln-Way Central in a quarterfinal. 

Later in the day, they scored twice in the top of the sixth to break a tie and held off Southwest Prairie rival Minooka 5-4 in the semifinals. Both games were held at the new Wintrust Crossroads Sports Complex in New Lenox.

“We just stayed calm,” Karczewski said. “I don’t really change my emotion, just kind of stay calm and remain that way the whole game, and I think that it has worked well with this group. All of our games could have gone either way.

I think keeping that levelheadedness may have helped us stay under control. We never got too high or too low and were able to come through in the end. We still haven't played the way that we can, but we still found a way. It's special."