Before it started, Northwest Indiana Oilmen infielder Nate Montgomery suggested the first-round playoff series with the Southland Vikings was going to have plenty of runs.
“It’ll be a slugfest,” Montgomery said on Monday morning.
On Tuesday night, the Vikings and Oilmen made his words come true.
The Oilmen used a five-run seventh inning to pull away from the Vikings for a 12-7 win in Game 1 of their Midwest Collegiate League semifinal series at Oil City Stadium in Whiting.
Two of the MCL’s top arms were on the mound, with NWI starting Christian Howell and Southland countering with Anthony Rogers. But neither pitcher made it past the fifth inning. By the end of the sixth, it was a 7-7 tie.
That’s then the NWI offense put together the game-winning rally.
With two outs and two on in the seventh, designated hitter Amir Wright, a 2016 Griffith graduate who now plays for St. Leo University in Florida, got a fortunate hop to score both runners. His hard-hit single bounced over the head of a Southland infielder to break the deadlock.
“I’ve never seen that before,” Wright said. “It was a 1-0 count and I was looking middle-in for something I could do damage with.”
After NWI third basemen Jackson Dvorak reached on an error that scored Wright, Montgomery put the game out of reach with a towering two-run homer to left field. It came at the expense of Hunter Kraynak, who was Montgomery’s roommate at South Suburban last year.
“He got me in the first at-bat,” Montgomery said of his strikeout earlier in the game.
“Then I saw a fastball and I just swung out of my shoes,” Montgomery said. “I’m just happy I made contact.”
Oilmen reliever Max Franklin took over from there. He entered the game in the fifth and promptly struck out the side. Franklin was never challenged in his five innings of work, picking up the win while allowing just two hits and one walk with eight strikeouts.
It was perfect timing for a stellar outing, too: Franklin has opted not to play college baseball anymore while focusing on school. So Tuesday’s appearance was the final one of his career.
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“It’s a good way to go out,” Franklin said. “I was getting first-pitch strikes and working a lot off-speed pitches. I was throwing a lot of ground balls, too, trusting the defense behind me.”
Game 2 will be back at Oil City Stadium on Wednesday night, with the Oilmen serving as the home team this time after being the road team in Game 1. And if past trends continue, the Oilmen are in good shape: they’ve never lost an MCL series after winning Game 1.
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.