The Oak Park and River Forest High School baseball team knew what to expect from pitching ace Hank Christie during Saturday’s Lane Tech Regional final at Kerry Wood Field.
The Northwestern commit was predictably dominant, allowing no runs, four hits, two walks with five strikeouts in seven innings to earn a 1-0 win in eight innings. Joe Cundari added an inning of scoreless relief, setting the stage for the Huskies’ walk-off win.
“I felt good on the mound today,” Christie said. “I didn’t have as much control as I usually do but I felt fine. When I’m out there, I don’t really think about who is in the box. (Lane Tech’s) number nine hitter had a nice triple, but other than that I wasn’t too worried about it.”
The real surprise was how much the Huskies’ high-powered offense struggled against Lane Tech starter Brett Wicklund. He gave up three hits and three walks and fanned four Huskies.
“He knew where to pitch us,” OPRF senior first baseman Connor Nelson said about Wicklund. “He knew every hitter on our team and where to pitch each one of us. Props to him. He made our job tough, but we battled and came out on top in the end which was great.”
OPRF finally scratched across the winning run in the eighth against the city champs.
With one out, center fielder Brian May singled to left center. After May stole second base, second baseman Jeremy Gaines and shortstop Andrew Hennings drew walks to load the bases for slugging senior first baseman Connor Nelson. Nelson hit a sharp grounder to the Indians’ shortstop, who bobbled the ball enabling May to score the winning run.
“In my first couple of at-bats I was out in front of the ball,” Nelson said. “But I stayed patient and I knew I had to get the ball in play. I saw the infield in and I needed to get the ball to the left side of the infield. That’s what happened and we were fortunate enough to get that run.”
May and Hennings both finished 1-for-3 with a single and two stolen bases, while freshman catcher Luke Fitzgerald went 1-for-3 with a stolen base.
“We have a lot of speed on this team so we know we need to get base runners,” Nelson said. “When we get a base runner we could play our fundamental ball, but we came out flat today and didn’t do that. Our focus now is to start getting base runners.”
With Saturday’s win in the book, OPRF has won a remarkable 31 regional championships over the past 36 seasons.
The Huskies (27-7) advance to the semifinals of the Loyola Academy Sectional where they will face Elk Grove on Wednesday, June 1 (5 p.m.) in Wilmette. New Trier and Notre Dame play Thursday in the other semifinal. The sectional championship game is Saturday, June 4 at 10 a.m.