Softball: Oak Forest No-Hits Evergreen Park to Win Sectional Title

Touching All the Bases: Senior pitchers Emily Norton and Colleen Sherwood combined on a no-hitter to help Oak Forest beat Evergreen Park 9-0 in Saturday’s Class 3A Oak Forest Sectional final. It was the fourth straight sectional championship for the Bengals, who won the 2009 state championship.

Norton (21-4) pitched the first five innings, striking out 10 and allowing just two walks and one hit batter, while Sherwood tossed two perfect innings, striking out two.

“I’m definitely excited about the no-hitter,” Norton said. “It was hot out and I was definitely loose. All my pitches felt really good and I got in a rhythm. Towards the end I started to get a little tired, but I had Colleen to come in and back me up, which was great.”

Top-seeded Oak Forest had plenty of offense to support the stellar pitching as well. Samantha Bal led off the bottom of the first inning with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Emily Missaggia and scored on an RBI single by Norton for what turned out to be the only run the Bengals needed. Junior catcher Emily Naegele added a home run in the first inning to spark the Bengals’ 14-hit attack.

Evergreen Park junior Michelle Putlak (13-7), who had been on a roll, suffered the loss.

Third-seeded Evergreen Park, appearing in its first sectional final since 2003, will graduate seniors Erin Crane, Kim Farmer, Alyssa Langevin, Mary Sims, Rachel Sinon and Teresa Ziebarth.

Patch’s MVP: Oak Forest’s Emily Norton. Not only did she combine with Colleen Sherwood on a no-hitter in a big game, but she also went 3-for-3 with an RBI as the team’s No. 3 hitter.

Oak Forest’s Leaders: Emily Norton (winning pitcher, 5 innings, 0 hits, 10 strikeouts; 3-for-3, RBI); Emily Naegele (2-for-3, home run, 2 runs); Jourdan Skirha (2-for-3, 2 runs, RBI, walk); Colleen Sherwood (2 perfect pitching innings, triple), Ashley Ventrella (1-for-2, RBI double, walk, run); and Gianna Kuras (1-for-3, run, RBI)

Evergreen Park’s Leaders: Kym Farmer (walk), Michelle Putlak (walk).

Quotable I: Oak Forest coach Paige Stryczek on the fourth straight sectional championship: “Four in a row is amazing. Every one has been a little different, but this was a good one. Every win is special with my five seniors and this is Emily (Norton’s) last go-round.”

Quotable II: Oak Forest’s Emily Naegele on her home run: “It was big. The game against Lemont (in the sectional semifinal), everyone was uptight and nervous. I had to show I wasn’t nervous anymore and I could really hit the ball in good situations. (Winning a sectional title) is great. We knew we had to take it one game at time and we definitely came out to play today.”

Quotable III: Evergreen Park coach John O’Connor on the loss and the season: “Michelle (Putlak) hurt her back in the first inning and she’s been fighting through back problems all year long. She just wasn’t herself today, but the girls had a great season. We went from 16-19 last year to win 21 games this year. We’re turning it around. We’re a pretty young team and we have a lot of talent coming up and we’ll have five starters returning. Hopefully we’ll be back here and this is something we can do the next couple years as we get better as a program. The seniors will be missed.”

Team Records: Oak Forest improves to 30-4, while Evergreen Park finishes 21-11.

What’s Next: Oak Forest advances to take on LaSalle-Peru in the Class 3A Illinois State University Supersectional Monday in Normal.