Softball: Marian Catholic Outslugs Oak Forest

Marian Catholic 8, Oak Forest 3: Rebecca Stanton and Alex Nickel connect for homers as the Spartans rally from a 3-1 deficit to take the non-conference battle on Friday afternoon in Oak Forest.

Touching All the Bases: A big crowd turned out to watch some of the Southland’s biggest boppers put on fireworks show in a non-conference softball matchup with playoff implications on a chilly Friday afternoon in Oak Forest. And, sure enough, the ball was flying out of the ballpark in Marian Catholic’s 8-3 victory over Oak Forest. Emily Naegele’s solo homer in the bottom of the third inning staked the Bengals to a 3-1 lead. The blast for Naegele was her ninth of the season. Marian Catholic tied the score 3-3 on a solo homer by Alex Nickel in the top of the fifth. And the Spartans’ Rebecca Stanton connected for a three-run homer that broke the game open in the sixth. The homer for Stanton was her eighth and came on an 0-1 pitch from Oak …

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UPDATE: Oak Forest's Naegele Gets the Biggest Roar from the Crowd

Oak Forest softball standout Emily Naegele outpolled 10 others in Patch's weekly MVP voting. She is now eligible for April Patch Athlete of the Month recognition.

Your Patch is a place to celebrate local high school athletes. Show your support for these prep sports MVPs—each of whom is Athlete of the Week in his or her local Patch—by cheering them on in the comments thread, sharing your own photos with the Patch community and voting in the poll. Do you think we're missing someone? Tell us in the comments and share his or her photo to the gallery above. (It's easy. Just click the Upload Photos and Videos link — learn more here.) Read more about this week's MVPs in the photo gallery, and show your support for them by: There is one more way for you to become a more interactive fan: Sign up to become a Patch sports blogger. (Learn more about blogging on Patch here).

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Bengal Emily Naegele Nabs Patch's MVP Vote

With more than 15,000 vote, Emily Naegele, of Oak Forest High School, took home top honors this week, topping second place by nearly 12,000 votes.

Go Emily, Go!

Oak Forest's Emily Naegele is sweeping the competition for this week's Roar of the Crowd. If you haven't gotten your vote in yet ... well, why haven't you?

Girls Basketball: Oak Forest Topples Lemont

Emily Naegele and Katie Swanson teamed up to lead Oak Forest in a 41-31 girls basketball victory over Lemont on Monday night.

Girls Basketball: Swanson's Scoring Powers Oak Forest in Win over Richards

Katie Swanson shrugged off a slow start and went on to score 26 points in Oak Forest's 53-40 girls basketball victory over Richards on Tuesday night. Emily Naegele added 17 rebounds for the Bengals.

Girls Basketball: Swanson's 20 Points Pace Oak Forest in Win over Argo

Katie Swanson poured in 20 points in Oak Forest's 46-32 girls basketball victory over Argo on Thursday night. Emily Naegele chipped in 12 rebounds. The Bengals raced to a 15-0 lead at the outset of the game.

Oak Forest, Tinley Park Play the Precursor to WNBA

In a summer clash of girls basketball rivals, the Titans and Bengals played at Allstate Arena and Oak Forest prevailed 48-47.

The Tinley Park and Oak Forest girls basketball rivalry took center stage on Tuesday afternoon, except that the stage was neither in Tinley or Oak Forest. Instead, the Titans and Bengals fought at Allstate Arena, home to the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, as part of the Sky’s Court of Dreams event. The two battled it out in the afternoon before the Sky held off Seattle 78-69 Tuesday night in a game broadcast on ESPN2. Despite the game being played in the summer and on a neutral floor, Oak Forest and Tinley Park played like all the marbles were on the line and battled to the end. Powered by 20 points from forward Emily Naegele, Oak Forest survived a fourth quarter rally by Tinley to win 48-47. “You saw how close the game was, it’s a great rivalry now…

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Local Sports Notebook

Oak Forest's Barry Playing for Crestwood Panthers

Recent Oak Forest graduate Tim Barry is testing his slugging ability with a wood bat this summer for the Panthers, whose home games are at Prairie State College.

Recent Oak Forest High School graduate Tim Barry is playing for the Crestwood Panthers this summer. The Panthers are an amateur baseball club that plays home games at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights. Barry, who has been playing third base, was 2-for-7 on the season heading into Saturday’s home game. Here is the team’s schedule if you want to go check out a game. The Panthers play in the Northern Illinois and Chicago Suburban baseball leagues and use wood bats. In other Tim Barry news, the slugger was named first team All-State by the Chicago Tribune for the recently completed high school season. Earlier this week, Barry was named one of Patch’s Top Spring Athletes. Oak Forest ace Kyle Funkhouser was named second-team All-State by …

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Oak Forest's Focus Sharpens in Quest for Another Softball Crown

Bengals' no-hitter against Evergreen Park on Saturday moves the team another step closer to its goal. Next up: Monday's supersectional.

After winning the program’s first state championship in 2009, the Oak Forest softball team used a specific quote as motivation last season. “The quote was ‘Getting to the top is the easy part, staying on top is the hard part,’ ” Oak Forest coach Paige Stryczek said. “That is the hard part because nobody is going to underestimate you anymore. We have a little bit more focus this year because we need to go back to playing Bengal softball.” The Bengals were denied a shot at defending their Class 3A championship last season when eventual state champion Metamora beat Oak Forest 7-3 in the supersectional. Oak Forest is now hoping to avoid a repeat of that disappointment. The Bengals (30-4) moved one win away from another state trip by beating …

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