Prep Baseball Report

Oak Forest, Funkhouser win pitchers' duel



By Drake Skleba

OAK FOREST – On a classic April afternoon, a classic South Suburban Conference Blue Division showdown was taking place at Bengal Field at Oak Forest High School on Monday.

With the battle all even at 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Oak Forest senior CF Artie Johnson stepped to the plate. On second base was junior Tony Zale, who led off the inning with an infield hit. A beautiful sac-bunt from Bengal SS Jason Hine moved Zale into scoring position after his single. After the 12th strikeout by Lemont’s University of Illinois-bound LHP Tyler Jay, the No. 9 Bengal hitter Johnson stepped up.

Johnson sent the huge crowd home happy when as he ripped a Jay fastball into centerfield, scoring Zale with the winning-run and the 10th-ranked Bengals had a pulsating 2-1 victory.
“I was looking fastball obviously with Jay throwing so hard,” said Johnson. “I got ahead of him in the count and got a fastball and ripped it up the middle. It felt great to drive in the game-winner.”

The big early-season matchup featured two of the top pitchers in Illinois. Armed with their radar guns, 11 MLB scouts were on hand for this event, featuring Oak Forest’s Louisville-bound RHP Kyle Funkhouser and Jay.

Lemont picked up its lone run of the game on an Oak Forest (5-1; 1-0) miscue in the top of the first.

For 5 1/3 innings it looked as if Jay was going to make that run stand up. The future Illini lefty fired 5 1/3 hitless innings.

With one out in the sixth, Bengal Junior 2B Jimmy Blake hit a soft roller towards short. The ball died in the thick grass and Indian SS Gio Schmitt could not make a play. Bengal junior C John Zubek hammered a shot that went over the Indian RF’s head for an RBI double scoring Blake who was off with the pitch. Zubek’s drive tied the game at 1.

“It’s always fun to beat Lemont,” said Zubek. “It’s a big rivalry in all sports. There were a lot of people here and it was great to put on a great show for them. I heard a quote from Paul Konerko about just concentrating on the ball. I went with that approach and was able to take the ball to right for the game-tying double.”

Funkhouser (2-1) struggled early in the game with his control, walking three in the first two innings. After that, he allowed two harmless singles to Jay and three overall. Funkhouser finished the game with nine strikeouts, two of them coming in the top of the seventh.

“After the first inning I really didn’t want to give them anymore runs,” said Funkhouser. “I started out with some control problems but once I straightened it out, I thought I pitched very well. On John (Zubek’s) double it was the second time this week that we ran a perfect hit-and-run play,”

The hard-luck loser Jay (1-3) struck out 12 and allowed two runs and four hits, all coming in the last two innings. Lemont falls to 4-4 and 0-1 in the SCC-Blue

“Lemont did everything to win this game but we somehow found a way to win,” said Oak Forest head coach Thad Gatton. “Kyle (Funkhouser) started out slow for us but finished very strong, which is his usual forte. Our two seniors, Johnny Zubek and Artie Johnson, came through for us. Johnny and Artie have been in two sectional final games, so they know how to react in big-time situations.”