The Northwest Indiana Oilmen had come agonizingly close to taking the lead.
Three hitters struck out in the sixth inning with runners on second and third and none out. Shortstop Jake Plastiak came a few feet from a grand slam with two out in the seventh.
Then, in the eighth, right fielder Tyler Kenjic put the Oilmen in front.
Kenjic, a 2016 Hobart graduate who now plays at Purdue Northwest, drove the first pitch he saw to left for a three-run homer as the Oilmen beat the Southland Vikings 7-5 Wednesday night to sweep their best-of-3 Midwest Collegiate League semifinal series.
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“I’ll remember that one for sure,” Kenjic said of his home run. “I was sitting fastball and got a hanger over the plate. I had time to sit back on it.”
Kenjic said he couldn’t remember a time in his career when he’d hit a go-ahead home run that late in the game — especially in a playoff series. He walked to the plate with the wasted scoring opportunities of the previous two innings on his mind.
“First and foremost, with runners in scoring position, you want to come through for your teammates,” Kenjic said. “You don’t want to look back and say, we had a few chances to win the ball game. I didn’t want to fail there.”
The Oilmen advance to the MCL finals, which begin Friday. They’ll face either the DuPage County Hounds or Bloomington Bobcats, who are tied 1-1 in their semifinal series heading into Thursday’s finale. It’s the Oilmen’s fourth appearance in the championship series in their seven seasons. Northwest Indiana has two MCL titles.
Southland grabbed a 1-0 advantage after the first inning and took a 4-1 lead with three more runs in the top of the sixth. The Oilmen inched back into the game with one run each in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings,. Then Kenjic’s blast put Northwest Indiana in front for good.
Oilmen reliever Chad Patrick, who replaced starter Brendan Kelly in the sixth inning, earned the win. Patrick, a 2017 Hebron graduate who now plays with Kenjic at PNW, allowed one run on two hits in 3 1/3 innings with no walks and five strikeouts.
Patrick said his two-seam fastball was his most effective pitch in that relief appearance.
“It kept breaking in and hitting on the outside corner,” Patrick said. “They were chasing a lot of high pitches on inside part of the plate. My curveball was good, too — a lot better than the last time I was out there.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.