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Hobbled Linares leads Oak Forest
Updated: June 11, 2011 12:26PM
Kyle Linares at less than full strength was more than enough for Oak Forest on Monday afternoon.
Linares tweaked a lower back injury suffered last week in a sectional win over Rich Central, but still had a big day on the mound and at the plate to lead the Bengals past Jones 10-2 in a Class 3A supersectional at Standard Bank Stadium in Crestwood.
Oak Forest (27-7) is heading to state for the first time since it won the Class AA title in 1986. The Bengals will play Nazareth at 10 a.m. Friday in the Class 3A semifinals at Silver Cross Field in Joliet.
Linares (5-0) shut out Jones on three hits over 4 1/3 innings before leaving with the back problem. He struck out five, walked one and also delivered a two-run single in Oak Forest’s six-run fifth inning.
That he’d play a starring role in finally getting the Bengals back to state is not something that was on Linares’ radar a few months ago.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “Coming into the year, I didn’t expect this at all. I didn’t think I was going to be able to pitch this year. ... I’ve been trying to get healthy.”
Bengals coach Thad Gatton figured Linares could join ace Kyle Funkhouser in the playoff rotation – but only if he got his arm in shape. So the Bengals kept the right-hander off the mound most of the spring hoping to get him ready for the postseason.
“He’s had arm issues his whole career because he hasn’t had very good mechanics,” Gatton said. “Early in the year, we didn’t think we had a solid No. 2 (pitcher) to get through the playoffs and he was our best chance. We shut him down and it wound up being a good decision.”
The Bengals jumped ahead 1-0 in the second when Bobby Sheppard (3-for-3, run, RBI) scored on a wild pitch. Oak Forest made it 3-0 in the third on RBI singles by Tim Barry (1-for-3, run, 2 RBI) and Sheppard and then broke the game open in the fifth. Kyle Sleeman had a two-run double, Tom Livingston added an RBI single and Barry hit a sacrifice fly in the rally.
John Zubek (2-for-5) and Sleeman (2-for-3) also contributed offensively for Oak Forest.
Jones (20-12) had a two-run single from Floyd Sumrall in the sixth. Pablo Padilla was 3-for-3 for the Eagles.
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