Lewandowski on the Mound Puts Central Back On Track

AURORA – Following a disappointing loss to Oswego on Tuesday, 's baseball team was looking to bounce back against Wednesday in non-conference play.

Thanks in large part to the contributions of junior Ian Lewandowski, the Redhawks achieved the desired result.

In his first outing of the season on the mound, Lewandowski went four strong innings as Central held on for a 6-4 win. He also drove in two runs and made a sparkling defensive play at third base to end the game and Waubonsie’s late efforts at a rally.

“I thought Ian threw terrific,” Central coach Bill Seiple said. “He had jump on the ball. He’s going to give us a chance just about every time out. I thought Ian made a great play to end the game. He’s a terrific athlete. We don’t have another kid that can make that play. Good day for Ian all the way around.”

Lewandowski got Central (2-1) going in the top of the first before even toeing the rubber. He singled in Ross Murphy and scored to stake the Redhawks to a 2-0 lead. The lead stretched to 4-0 before he allowed an unearned run in the third, his only blemish on the day.

Limited to 65 pitches, Lewandowski struck out three, walked none and allowed only two hits while hitting the mid-80s with his fastball.

“After yesterday, we just wanted to throw strikes and let the hitters hit the ball to our defense and let them do the job,” Lewandowski said. “I just tried to get ahead in the count as much as possible. Getting ahead in the count made them start swinging more, which made them ground out.”

Central was in command until the bottom of the seventh, when Waubonsie (0-2) made a comeback. A two-run single from Mike Murphy, who wound up being the losing pitcher, cut the lead to 6-4 with two outs. But Lewandowski’s charging pick-up of a Ryan Vega grounder ended the threat.

“We have to be confident in our abilities when we get down early,” Waubonsie coach Dan Fezzuoglio said. “We need to be better than the way we came out the last couple of days. When you make four errors, that doesn’t help either. From a mental standpoint, we have to be better, especially against a team like Central.”

Slow starts are not foreign to the Warriors in recent years. Despite successful summer campaigns and high expectations the past two seasons, Waubonsie had dismal starts only to put things together by midseason and make a run in the playoffs.

“Obviously, that’s when you want to be playing well, we understand that,” Fezzuoglio said. “However, it’s also nice to get off to a good start and settle in and really work. The last couple of years, I don’t know what it is; we just can’t get our bearings.

"Believe me, we’ve gone through it and wonder why we’ve gotten off to slow starts. We’ve had some quality teams, and we think this will be a quality team. We’re still trying to find that answer.”

Waubonsie gets right back after it at 11 a.m. Thursday at home against Benet.

Central travels to Lyons Township at 11 a.m. Thursday and will throw ace left-hander Dan Ludwig.