LA GRANGE, IL - No. 25 Oak Park-River Forest (1-0) traveled to Nazareth Academy (4-2-1) for their season opener on a cold and frigid afternoon. The Huskies used a hot start distance themselves from the Roadrunners early, and held in the final innings to secure a 4-2 victory.

OPRF managed to score three runs in the first inning off Nazareth starting pitcher, Louisville commit, Michael Prosecky. Brian May, Depauw commit, led the game off by getting hit by an inside curveball. Dylan Whitney followed by reaching base safely on an infield single. A throwing error by the shortstop, two batters later, allowed May to come around for the first run of the game.  With two outs and the bases loaded, Tommy Cronin laced a ball into right center field, scoring two more runs. Prosecky would strike the next batter out, but the damage was done.

The Huskies tacked on another run in the second inning as well, this time off relief pitcher, Carthage commit, Chance Roach. Andrew Neilson brought around Brian May on a sacrifice fly to right field, extending the lead to 4-0. The OPRF offense would cool off though, managing only three hits over the final five innings off Roach, William Pacella and, Dayton commit, Ryan Turgeon.

OPRF starting pitcher Brendan Barrette, Parkland JC commit, got off to a shaky start, giving up hits to the first two batters of the game, Breven Reifsteck and, Triton JC commit, Dominic Milano. Barrette would escape the inning unscathed though and cruise through the next two, retiring the Roadrunners in order. Barrette would leave after three shutout innings, surrendering three hits, walking none and striking out five.

Nazareth began their comeback as OPRF tried to bridge the gap between Barrette and closer, Creighton commit, Griffin Holderfield. Paolo Zavala pushed across the first run for the Roadrunners in the fourth inning, scoring Ryan Turgeon, who had reached base earlier on a walk. Then an error by the shortstop on a Zavala ground ball, in the sixth inning, cut the Huskies lead to 4-2.

Up by two, with three outs to go, OPRF called upon Holderfield to shut the door and secure the save. In true closer fashion, Holderfield entered the game with no sleeves under his jersey, on a day when the wind chill dipped to near freezing. The Nazareth offense was overmatched by Holderfield’s fastball, as he ran it up to 90 mph. The first two batters went down by strikeout and, Triton JC commit, Bobby Grimes ended the game with a fly out to right field.   

For more in-depth notes from the game - and all other games that we cover - visit the Illinois Scout Blog later.

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