By Randy Whalen

One moment, one game, one positive belief is often all it takes to turn things around.

Take the Joliet West baseball team, for example. The Tigers had not exactly started the season off well. It was mid-April, they had dropped nine straight, and their record sat at 2-11. 

To make matters more daunting, they were going to Minooka for a Southwest Prairie Conference crossover. All the Indians did on the season was finish 33-4 and win the SPC West with a 14-1 record.  

So what was the message to the Tigers as they took the trip to Minooka on Monday, April 14, to face a team that was 12-1 at that point?

"Minooka has really been a rival for us," Joliet West senior shortstop Nate Consalvo said. "So before the game, (assistant) Coach (Jonathan) Murray lit the fire under us. He said, 'If anyone here doesn't think we can win, get off the field!'"

No one did. Instead, Joliet West played great and came away with a 6-1 victory. That proved to be a turning point as the Tigers took 10 of their next 13 games and turned their season around.

"Yes, we really picked it up after that," Consalvo said. "That really turned it around for us."

It certainly did, and after a 4-2 home loss to a good Romeoville (22-15, 11-4) team on Thursday, May 8, the Tigers took the next six in a row. Not only did that clinch a winning record for them, which was unthought of when they were 2-11, but it also clinched the SPC East title.

"We were 2-11 and when we beat Minooka, we were a different animal," Joliet West coach John Karczewski said. "Our guys always get up for that game, and it turned our season around. 

"We knew there was still a lot of season to go. We just had to figure it out. It was like putting together the pieces of a puzzle."

Winning the first two games over Plainfield Central, including one that was suspended by weather on Tuesday, May 13, clinched the SPC East. In that game, Joliet West rallied to win its sixth straight, 10-7. The Wildcats (27-9, 11-4) led 6-0 through four innings. But the Tigers turned it on with five in the fifth, three in the sixth, and two more runs in the seventh to get the W and win the conference.

"We turned it around and especially played well in the conference," Consalvo said. "Especially to rally from six down and beat Plainfield Central at their place. Winning the conference was a special feeling, especially with all the new guys who hadn't seen the field too much last year."

There were 14 seniors, including most of the starting lineup, who graduated from last year's Joliet West team, which set the school record for victories, going 32-5.

"Our starting lineup was basically all new; we had to mold ourselves," Consalvo said. "But our defense was great all around. "I knew coming into the season as a senior that someone had to step up. I tried to have that role as much as possible."

So did the pitching staff.

"Our pitching coach, Tyler Brown, just got back to the basics," Karczewski said. "We did some soul searching, and our pitchers threw strikes. Ryan Lasson was the Conference Pitcher of the Year. He had an ERA of 0.93. That's four of the last five years that we've had a pitcher win that."

In the postseason, the Tigers were the No. 10 seed in the Class 4A Lincoln-Way West Sectional. They hosted their own regional with a semifinal game on Thursday, May 29, against No. 8-seeded Richards (22-8).

There, Lasson, a senior right-hander, showed why he was the SPC East Pitcher of the Year. He retired 10 in a row at one point, before that ended with a one-out sixth-inning walk. But he then retired the next five batters to close out the game, finishing a complete-game effort, allowing just four hits while striking out three.

"I was definitely nervous for the first couple of innings, and I was just going back to the bullpen to rethink my mechanics, and being able to throw my curveball for strikes was key," Lasson told the Joliet Herald News after the game. "My confidence is high in our defense. Everybody has been amazing all year."

Trailing 1-0, Joliet West, which batted first due to the lower seed, scored twice in the fourth. Consalvo coaxed a walk to start the inning, and junior Sean Hogan hammered a double to tie the score. Two batters later, senior Joe Durak deposited the game-winning RBI by connecting for a clean single.

"That was one of his best games of the year," Karczewski said of Lasson. "He’s just modest and humble, and he’s like a gentle giant. He’s tough."

The Tigers, who finished the season at 19-17 and 12-3 in the SPC East, were tough as a team. But so was their opponent in the regional title game on Saturday, May 31. That was top-seeded Lincoln-Way East. 

Still, the game was scoreless through four innings. But then the Griffins (28-11), who won the SouthWest Suburban Conference with a record of 12-4, put up four runs in the fifth. They added one more in the sixth and finished with nine hits on the day.

Joliet West kept battling, though, putting up a run in the top of the seventh. Consalvo and Hogan had hits before senior pinch-hitter Mark Spoto sprayed a one-out RBI double. But Lincoln-Way East retired the final two batters. The Tigers finished with four hits, but didn't have any against the highly recruited left-hander Jack Bauer (3 innings, 8K) and fellow senior Jack Tamer (4 innings) until senior Peyton Barbarek beat out an infield hit in the sixth.

Lincoln-Way East went on to lose 12-0 in five innings to No. 3-seeded Providence (27-13) on Saturday, June 7, in the sectional title game. 

Making All-Conference for Joliet West were Consalvo, Hogan, Lasson, junior Daniel Lukancic, senior Quintin Quardia, and junior Henry Young.

A dozen seniors graduate from this season's squad. They are Barborek, Zach Chignoli, Consalvo, Durak, Jacob Ftacek, Quintin Guardia, Isaiah Jones, Lasson, Daniel Markun, Ryan Sobun, Spoto, and Samuel Williams.

This was the sixth straight winning season under Karczewski and his 11th since taking over as head coach in 2011. 

"We didn't have a lot of experience coming into the season," said Karczewski, who expects a handful of starters to be back next season. "We had to find our identity, and we did."