Baseball Game Preview: Lockport Porters vs. Joliet Catholic Hilltoppers

Lockport and Joliet Catholic are an even 3-3-1 against one another since April of 2015, but likely not for long. The Porters will look to defend their home field on Thursday against the Hilltoppers at 6:00 p.m. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Lockport 4.1, Joliet Catholic 3) so any runs scored will be well earned.

For some reason, the away team has come away with the win the last four times Lockport and Bradley-Bourbonnais have met, but the home crowd finally got their W on Wednesday. The Porters walked away with a 5-2 win over the Boilermakers.

Jeffrey Bruining looked comfortable as he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. What's more, he posted two strikeouts, the most he's had since back in March.

Adam Kozak

Stolen Base

05/07/25 vs Bradley-Bourbonnais	1
05/05/25 @ Bradley-Bourbonnais	2
05/03/25 @ Joliet West	1
04/30/25 vs Lincoln-Way Central	1
04/28/25 @ Lincoln-Way Central	1

On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Adam Kozak, who went 2-for-4 with one stolen base, one run, and one double. He has been hot, having posted at least one stolen base the last five times he's played. Another player making a difference was Bryce Flood, who went 2-for-4 with two runs and one stolen base.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Joliet Catholic, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Monday. They came out on top against Marist by a score of 6-1 on Wednesday.

Joliet Catholic is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last nine matchups. That's provided a massive bump to their 13-11 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.1 runs on average over those games. As for Lockport, their win bumped their record up to 15-8.