Baseball Game Preview: Oak Lawn Spartans vs. Kennedy Crusaders

Oak Lawn is on a six-game streak of home wins, while Kennedy is on a ten-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Spartans will welcome the Crusaders at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Oak Lawn is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 8.2 runs per game this season.

On Thursday, Oak Lawn needed a bit of extra time to put away Oak Forest. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-1 win over the Bengals. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Spartans have posted since April 4th.

John Olejniczak

Earned Runs

03/26/25 vs Helena	8
04/08/25 @ Richards	4
04/21/25 @ Shepard	3
04/14/25 @ Argo	1
04/01/25 @ Evergreen Park	1

John Olejniczak made a splash no matter where he played. On the mound, he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out nine over seven innings pitched. He also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Oak Lawn is undefeated when he allows at most one earned run, but 9-11 otherwise. Olejniczak was also solid in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 with one triple and one RBI. That's the most hits he has posted since back in April.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Peyton Melnik, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with one stolen base and one RBI.

Meanwhile, Kennedy's rock-solid pitchers showed up for the team's third consecutive shutout on Monday. Their pitchers stepped up to hand Hyde Park a 9-0 shutout. The result was nothing new for the Crusaders, who have now won 11 matchups by six runs or more so far this season.

Kennedy has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 13 of their last 14 games. That's provided a nice bump to their 20-7 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.5 runs on average over those games. As for Oak Lawn, their victory bumped their record up to 14-11.