Baseball: Oak Forest Rally Ends Rich Central Run

Touching All the Bases: After Rich Central scored four runs in the first inning off of Oak Forest starter Kyle Linares, the natural assumption was the Bengals were in trouble. But they never flinched, slowly chipping away off of Olympian pitcher Jayme Taylor to notch a 9-4 baseball victory in the Class 3A Lincoln-Way West Sectional semifinals on Wednesday.

Oak Forest scored two runs in the second inning, one in the third and two in the fourth to take the lead for good. The Bengals added four insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to make the victory look like a runaway.

Taylor, Rich Central's big-game pitcher, ran into problems in the second inning. He issued a bases-loaded walk to Arthur Johnson, scoring Cody Murray with the Bengals' first run. Oak Forest pushed across its second run on a sacrifice fly by John Zubek that scored Luke Huerta. Murray hit an RBI-double in the third to score Bobby Sheppard and make it 3-2.

The big playing field at Lincoln-Way West combined with gusty winds wreaked havoc on the Olympian infielders all day long, leading to a couple of misplayed popups. Rich Central's Matt Cole misplayed two pop flyballs in the third that loaded the bases and allowed Sheppard to hit a two-run single, scoring Zubek and Brian Richard to give the Bengals their first lead.

Linares was effective the rest of the way as the Olympians had the tying run at second in both the fourth and fifth innings before Linares got Tyler House to strike out in the fourth and Garrett Spivey to fan to end the fifth. Linares helped his cause and put the game away in the sixth with a two-run double to score Tim Barry and Sheppard.

Patch’s MVP: Kyle Linares, Oak Forest. He picked up the win on the mound, going the distance and not giving up a run after the first inning while also getting a hit and driving in two runs and scoring a run.

Oak Forest Leaders: Cody Murray 3-for-4, drove in one run and scored two runs. Bobby Sheppard had a two-run single and scored two runs.

Rich Central Leaders: Jayme Taylor pitched deep into the game, just as he did all season, and gave the Olympians a chance to win.

Quotable I: “The seniors have brought this program so far I am going to miss them, but they definitely left their mark,” Rich Central coach Corey Stallings said.

Quotable II: “Kyle (Funkhouser), Tim (Barry) and Bobby (Sheppard) are always going to get theirs on the high school level because they're so good, but for us to get to this point and beyond we need the other guys to step up and they did that,” Oak Forest coach Thaddeus Gatton said.

Team Records: Oak Forest improves to 24-7, while Rich Central ends with a 22-6 record.

What’s next: Oak Forest advances to the sectional finals on Saturday. The Bengals will face Joliet Catholic Academy or Lemont at 11 a.m. at Lincoln-Way West.