A recent slump had St. Laurence’s Luke Stulga searching for answers.
The senior outfielder thought he had discovered something before Monday’s game. His first swing showed him that he was right.
“A lot of the time, I’ll go in the cage by myself,” Stulga said. “Sometimes, it takes a couple days and countless rounds of (batting practice), but eventually, I’ll find it. Just before this game, I figured out the kink in my swing and fixed it.
“I told Jesse (Contreras) before the game, ‘I figured it out.’ It’s kind of cool when you can fix yourself like that and get yourself out of a slump.”
Stulga, an Illinois State recruit, connected for a long two-run homer on the first pitch he saw. The day got even better from there as he hit for the cycle, leading the host Vikings to a 9-5 win over Mount Carmel in a Catholic League Blue game in Burbank.
Johnny Wendling went 2-for-3 with a double, two runs and three RBIs and Minnesota recruit Jameson Martin reached base three times and scored twice for St. Laurence (18-7, 9-3).
Blainey Dowling finished 2-for-4 with a two-run single for Mount Carmel (13-9, 6-7). Joey Ireland went 2-for-3 with an RBI, while Kolin Adams reached base three times and scored a run.
Stulga finished 4-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs. He followed his homer with an RBI single and a double, then completed the cycle with a leadoff triple to deep center field in the sixth inning.
“When I got that first swing off, that brought all my confidence back,” Stulga said of the home run. “I was like, ‘OK, so I did fix it.’
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“I’d never hit for the cycle before in a high school game, so that’s really cool. I didn’t even know until we got in the huddle after the game.”
Wendling said when Stulga gets hot, it brings a whole new level of confidence to the rest of the Vikings.
“He’s dangerous,” Wendling said of Stulga. “When he’s hot, everyone else is hot too. When you see him succeed, the rest of the team succeeds. I think he starts it.”
St. Laurence coach Pete Lotus has tried to keep Stulga level-headed when he goes through a slump.
“It’s something we’ve worked on a lot with him,” Lotus said. “He’s super talented, and I think he expects a lot from himself. When it doesn’t happen, and there’s a couple times in a row where he doesn’t get a hit, he really gets down.
“We talk about just letting the game come to him and swinging at good pitches because sometimes he gets super anxious when he’s not going right. He did a great job with that (Monday).”
Mount Carmel, which suffered its fifth straight loss, battled back from an early 4-0 deficit and pulled within 6-5 in the fifth inning.
The Caravan nearly forced the tie on a pinch-hit single from Vince Winters, but St. Laurence left fielder Tyler Radosevich threw out James Nydegger at the plate.
“I take responsibility for that,” Mount Carmel coach Brian Hurry said. “I probably should have held him and had the bases loaded, but give their left fielder credit. He made a really good throw. That was maybe the key play of the game.
“This team never quits, never stops fighting. I’m proud of the guys.”
Notre Dame recruit DJ Helwig struck out 11 in 4 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs, to get the win for the Vikings.
Luke Geary worked a scoreless final 2 1/3 innings for the save, utilizing a funky delivery in the seventh.
“That was a little Nestor Cortes there,” Geary said of the New York Yankees pitcher. “That comes out when I’m feeling myself out there.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
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