Oak Forest offers Kaneland’s final test

Kaneland coach Brian Aversa has credited his assistant coach Jim Smedley with keeping his team loose this year, and Smedley was it at again as the Knights made their way to Silver Cross Field in Joliet for the Class 3A state tournament.

“We saw all the fans (at the stadium), and we saw how loud it was going to be and we were really excited,” Kaneland junior Jake Razo said. “Nobody was nervous because we made it here and had nothing to lose. (Smedley) told us on the bus ride if we come this far we might as well win something. We played really loose and together as a team.”

Kaneland (25-10) is going to win something, and if the Knights can handle Oak Forest (27-7) at 11 a.m. Saturday, that something will be a state championship.

Not bad for a team that had never won a regional until beating Sycamore 2-1 two weeks ago. Now the Knights get Oak Forest, who beat Nazareth 3-1 in Friday’s first semifinal.

“They played a great game, Naz looked like a good team too,” Aversa said. “It’s going to be a great championship. We’re just glad to be part of it.”

Like Kaneland, Oak Forest used its ace to win Friday. Kyle Funkhouser pitched 7 innings for the Bengals, just like Bobby Thorson did for the Knights.

That leaves Aversa with plenty of options for Saturday including left-hander Drew Peters who won the supersectional Monday and has 3 postseason wins. Aversa also could go with senior right-handers Kyle Davidson or Drew French, who hasn’t pitched in the postseason but went 5-1 during the regular season.

“We’ll talk about it tonight,” Aversa said. “We watched Oak Forest and we’ll sit down with our assistants who watched the game and see what gives us the best matchup and go from there. Drew French, we’ll throw his name in the hat too. He warmed up today and was looking very good.”

Offensively, Oak Forest is led by slugger Tim Barry, who is hitting .379 with 12 home runs.

On its way to the state championship game, the Bengals defeated a team Kaneland is quite familiar with — Morris — 2-1 to win a regional title. Morris and Kaneland tied for the Northern Illinois Big 12 East Conference championship.

That conference championship seems like a lifetime ago after the excitement of the last three weeks. Kaneland’s six straight postseason wins (and 12 overall) put it one victory away from the state title.

“We are pumped, we are so excited,” Aversa said. “These guys deserve it for all the hard work we’ve put in this year.”