Baseball: Richards earns share of SSC Red title

Updated: May 14, 2012 8:30PM

For the third consecutive season, Richards has earned a piece of the South Suburban Red championship pie.

The Bulldogs erupted for five runs in the fifth inning Monday against Reavis, snapping a 5-5 tie, and registered an 11-5 win in Oak Lawn.

The victory improved Richards’ mark in conference to 15-3, one game ahead of Oak Lawn (14-4). The Bulldogs wrap up their conference season Tuesday at Reavis. Oak Lawn has two games remaining.

“Winning conference is always a goal,” said Richards coach Brian Wujcik, who has guided the Bulldogs to seven conference titles in 20 years. “Going into the season, I thought Oak Lawn had the pitching and we had the hitting.”

The Bulldogs (20-11) recorded 13 hits against Reavis. But the Rams (15-17, 11-6) certainly helped Richards’ cause by committing six errors.

The loss snapped the Rams seven-game winning streak.

“Six errors is not going to help us,” Reavis coach Don Erickson said. “During our winning streak, we’ve been fielding the baseball. Not today.”

The score was tied 5-5 with a runner on first base when Wujcik called on Eric Hall to pinch hit. Hall came through, drilling a double into the left-center field gap that scored pinch-runner Bryjohn Campbell for a 6-5 lead.

“Eric’s been hitting that line drive with backspin in the gaps the last three weeks,” Wujcik said.

The Bulldogs tacked on four more runs in the inning, highlighted by Joe Hicks’ two-run single.

Jake Kendryna picked up the win in relief of Tyler Masterlarz. Kendryna, a junior, retired nine straight hitters — eight on fly outs — before walking Jake Stano with one out in the seventh. Vince Boettger got the final two outs.

“There was a slight wind blowing in and he throws up a little flutter ball and gets fly outs,” Wujcik said. “We use him mostly as a starter, but we needed him in relief today and he did well.”

Jim Augle did a fine job setting the table as the Bulldogs lead-off hitter, reaching base four times. Chris Elliott (3-for-4), Tyler Sheehan (2-for-3) and Lou Castro (2-for-4, RBI) had multi-hit games for Richards.

David Beltran (3-for-4, 2 RBI), Jake Stano (1-for-3) and Leo Hernandez (1-for-2, RBI) drove in runs for the Rams. Mike Lally contributed two hits.

© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.