Pitch perfect: Ottawa blanks Oak Forest, 8-0, in sectional opener

OTTAWA – It would be awfully difficult to put together a better softball game than Ottawa did Tuesday in its 8-0 victory over Oak Forest in the Class 3A sectional semifinal.

As for putting together a better pitching performance than the one Ottawa senior Abby Bukantis did against the visiting Bengals?

Well, that would be perfectly impossible.

Ottawa’s right-handed ace faced 21 Oak Forest batters and set all 21 down, crafting a perfect game and sending the Pirates (22-4) on to vie for their program’s first sectional championship Thursday at fellow No. 1 seed Lemont (25-4).

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Ottawa's Abby Bukantis prepares a pitch during her perfect game Tuesday, June 8, 2021, against Oak Forest at Ottawa's King Field. (Scott Anderson)

“Without the team, I obviously couldn’t have done it,” the University of Nebraska Omaha-bound Bukantis said. “I got hit to the infield a lot, and my infield made all the plays and helped a lot, and my outfield helped a lot too. I couldn’t have done it without them.

“It feels really good. I feel like I did better than I thought I would.”

“You see perfect games early in regionals when stuff’s a little lopsided. To do it in a semifinal of sectionals, I mean it’s incredible. She didn’t even miss many spots, let alone throw something fat to a hitter. She was dialed in.”

—  Ottawa softball coach Adam Lewis

A number of notable defensive gems – including a great ranging-into-the-hole groundout to shortstop Abi Claus on the first pitch of the game, a heads-up 3-4-3 forceout involving first baseman McKenzie Oslanzi and second baseman Ryleigh Stehl to end the second, a great charging play on a bunt by third baseman Molly Buscher in the fourth and a fighting-the-sun catch by right fielder Kendall Eslinger for the second out of the fifth – helped Bukantis spin the perfecto.

“She’s really tough, and Coach [Adam Lewis of Ottawa] does a great job,” said Oak Forest coach Nick Fuentes, whose Bengals finish the year 19-5. “It’s a well-rounded team, and it’s going to be a good matchup between them and Lemont.

“We put the ball in play. My kids can’t hang their heads on that. The one thing I said was attack her, try to put the ball in play, and we did that. But when we did, they made plays.”

Bukantis worked all seven innings with no runs, no hits, no walks and no baserunners allowed while striking out six. She threw 68 pitches, 55 of them for strikes.

“You see perfect games early in regionals when stuff’s a little lopsided. To do it in a semifinal of sectionals, I mean it’s incredible,” OHS coach Adam Lewis said. “She didn’t even miss many spots, let alone throw something fat to a hitter.

“She was dialed in.”

While Bukantis and the Pirates defense were recording seven straight 1-2-3 innings, the Pirates offense was set down in order only once.

Ottawa scored three runs in the bottom of the second. Highlights included a run-scoring single from Oslanzi immediately followed by a two-run hit courtesy of Emma Haage. They scored another run in the third on a Stehl triple to right followed by a Claus RBI groundout. They scored three more in the fifth on a Claus two-run double and a Zoe Harris RBI single, and added an insurance run in the sixth with pinch hitter Makenna Chiaventone bunting pinch runner Emma Pillion home on the squeeze play.

Claus finished with three runs batted in, Haage was 3 for 3 with two RBIs, Stehl had two hits and two runs scored and Harris had two singles and the aforementioned RBI against Oak Forest starter and losing pitcher Hailey Wesner (5 IP, 8 ER, 2 K).

“We’re hitting all the way through the lineup,” Lewis said. “And even our kids who are coming in off the bench in pinch-hit or pinch-running situations are completely locked in, know exactly what’s going on in the game.”

First pitch of Thursday’s Ottawa-Lemont sectional final is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the Lemont High School Sports Complex.

“Once you get to the sectional, you’re done with cupcakes,” Lewis said. “Oak Forest is a good team. I just thought we played exceptionally, exceptionally well.

“I think the biggest thing [against Lemont] is just not getting out of the reason we’re doing so well and having such a good season. Do what we do and stay within ourselves and that’ll be the recipe for success.”