Worthington takes control

BY CHAD DARE

DANVILLE August 06, 2008 05:54 am

— If you want something done right — you better do it yourself.
That’s the mantra of Danville first baseman Dabo Worthington.
He backed up his beliefs with actions in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader with the Dubois Bombers.
Worthington’s two-out, bases-clearing triple in the fifth inning carried the Dans to a 5-3 win over the Bombers at Danville Stadium.
“After we lost the first game (5-4) and we heard that DuPage won (2-1 over Quincy), I was thinking that we were basically tied at that point,’’ said Worthington of the chase for the CICL second-half title. “We don’t want to put our fate in someone else’s hands. As long as we got control, we can just win it on our own.
“I’m not going to put my trust in someone else to do something for me. If I want to do it, I need to go out and do it myself. We, as a team, need to think like that.’’
So when Dubois manager Brian Smiley elected to walk Danville designated hitter Andrew Pollak to load the base with two outs in the fifth, it put the fate of the Dans on the shoulders of Worthington, a junior-to-be at Southern University.
“I was kind of excited to be honest, because I wanted to be in that situation,’’ said Worthington, who had been called out on strikes in his previous plate appearances against Bombers righty Matt Antos. “I’m thinking that I have to get those runners home.
“I had a couple of bad at-bats with two strikeouts on pitches that I thought were outside. But, I was on the fastball and I knew he wasn’t going to throw it by me.’’
The first pitch from Antos was a high fastball that Worthington laid off for a ball.
“I knew he was going to throw his fastball right down the middle on the next one,’’ Worthington said.
The former Danville High and Danville Area Community College standout was right.
He crushed the 1-0 fastball to the wall in right-center, bringing home all three runners.
“Dabo came up with a huge hit for us. He has been coming up with huge hits lately,’’ Danville manager Pete Paciorek said. “He had a couple of bad at-bats earlier in the game. But, he battled back and came through when we needed him.’’
Danville center fielder Drew Haynes, who went 1-for-2, started the two-out rally with a single to left. Second baseman Dan Kaczrowski, who went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, followed with a single to center and Pollak was given the intentional pass.
In the first game, Smiley did the same thing when he walked Kaczrowski, but Danville’s Chris Lewellyn grounded out in the situation.
“Dabo stuck with his good approach. He didn’t try to do too much with the bases loaded and two outs,’’ said Paciorek, whose team is hitting just .247 with the bases loaded this summer. “Sometimes when guys come up with bases loaded, they try to do too much.
“He got a pitch he could work with and he put the barrel on it.’’
Two of the happiest players for the Dans (23-22) after Worthington’s hit were starting pitcher Austin Ross and reliever Lee Swindle.
“My teammates, and in particular Dabo, really picked me up in the bottom of the fifth,’’ said Ross, who earned his first win of the summer. “It’s about time that I got a win and I’m glad I could do it in a big game like this.’’
Ross said that he had some good outings this summer, but it was typically one bad inning that has cost him wins in previous contests.
“I knew that our guys were going to score runs,’’ he said. “My goal was to compete and throw strikes, mainly to throw strikes.’’
The sophomore-to-be from LSU went five innings, allowing six hits, three runs, two earned, while walking one and striking out four.
Swindle preserved the victory with two innings of shutout relief to get his first save.
“Dabo stepped up and got that hit, and it made it a lot easier going into the game with a lead than going in with us behind,’’ Swindle said. “I got another opportunity to come in and be a spark for the guys and shut the door.
“It feels good again. Hopefully, we can carry this momentum into the playoffs.’’
With the win and DuPage’s 5-3 loss to Quincy in the second game of a doubleheader in Lisle, the Dans remain 1½ games ahead of Dragons.
Danville (13-8 in the second half) has three games left, while DuPage (11-9) has four and the two teams will face each other in the season finale on Saturday night in Lisle.
“If we take care of our business, we don’t have to worry about DuPage,’’ Paciorek said.
The Dans are off today before traveling to Huntingburg, Ind., on Thursday for a 7:30 p.m. (EDT) contest with the Bombers at League Stadium.

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