Beware of the Flaming Red Hot Cheetos. The Brookfield Flaming Red Hot Cheetos served notice they want to win the 46th Annual Roy A. Overholt Invitational Tournament with a 13-1 victory over Riverside in opening round action last Thursday at Kiwanis Park.
Brookfield (18-1) broke open a scoreless tie against their rivals with four runs in the third inning. The Riverside Cubs’ defensive miscues coupled with aggressive baserunning from host Brookfield accounted for all four runs.
In the fourth, Brookfield kept the offensive pressure on as C.J. Anderson walked and Connor Berek reached base via a throwing error. Grayson Hendrix’s sacrifice fly and Chris Cooper’s RBI double pushed the lead to 7-0.
Riverside got on the scoreboard when shortstop Austin Bennett singled to start the bottom of the fifth. After an errant pick-off throw attempt at first, Bennett promptly motored around the bases to score. Bennett’s run was the lone tally for the Cubs as Brookfield ace Sebastian Correa allowed just two hits and fanned 12 in five innings.
“I just wanted to throw strikes; that’s what I always try to do,” Correa said. “We want to win the whole tournament.”
Riverside closed the game with six runs in the fifth inning, capped off on a walk-off three-run homer from Jordan Petronella over the left field fence.
“I was just looking for a base hit to score the runs to finish the game off,” Petronella said. “We can score runs and our defense is good. We beat [Riverside] so we’re on our way.”
Cooper (3-for-3, 3 RBIs) expressed a mixture of joy and relief regarding the Cheetos’ first Overholt win.
“Winning this game takes a lot of pressure off us,” Cooper said. “We feel really confident going into next week.”
Riverside, which finished the summer with a 12-10 record, battled Brookfield hard. Starter Steven Baer (6 strikeouts) pitched better than the score indicated, and Bennett made some fine defensive plays.
“Everyone hustled on our team.” Bennett said. “We played the game right and nobody gave up.”
In other first-round games, Lyons Township edged Lyons McCook 7-6, South Cicero knocked out defending champion Western Springs 4-2, and LaGrange Park cruised to a 10-0 victory over North Riverside.
This week’s quarterfinal match-ups include La Grange Park vs. La Grange (Wednesday) and Brookfield vs. Pleasantdale (Thursday). All games start at 7:30 p.m. at Kiwanis Park.
