Oak Lawn, IL (May 2, 2012) - It took nine innings to do it, but the Rams defeated 10th ranked Oak Lawn yesterday 3-2 to drop the Spartans out of first place in the SSC Red standings.
Reavis (10-15; 6-5) started the scoring in the top of the fourth inning when Anthony Doory's single brought home Joe O'Hara who had walked earlier in the frame. Oak Lawn tied the score in the bottom of the sixth off starter Jake Stano on back-to-back doubles. However, the Rams were able to get out of the inning without any further damage when catcher Leo Hernandez picked off an Oak Lawn runner at first base to end the threat.
In the seventh inning, Reavis took a 2-1 lead on a two-out double from Richie Velez, followed by a single past the Spartan shortstop by Mike Lally. "We didn't bunch together a lot of hits today, but we did a good job with two-out hitting, said Coach Erickson. "All three of our runs came with two outs." In the bottom of the frame, Stano got two quick outs before walking the eight and nine hitters to put runners on first and second for the Spartans. "Jake threw great all game and had good stuff even at the end of the game. We had strike two on both those hitters and we just couldn't get that last strike." Once again, down to his final strike, an Oak Lawn pinch hitter hit a single to left center to tie the game. Zack Mackowiak then came into the game for Stano to record the final out of the seventh and force extra innings.
There was no scoring in the eight, but in the top of the ninth Mackowiak walked and eventually moved to third on a throwing error. With two outs, Dave Beltran plated Mackowiak with an RBI single. The bottom of the ninth seemed to be deja vu for the Rams when Mackowiak got the first two Oak Lawn hitters out and had strike two on the third batter. Once again, however, the hitter reached on an infield single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Zack shut the door on the Spartans, though, when he struck out the final hitter to preserve the thriller for the Rams.
"This was a great win for us," said Coach Erickson. "Our guys could have folded after losing the lead in the seventh inning, but we hung in there and gutted it out today!"
Reavis takes on Oak Lawn Thursday at Czarnecki Field.