Two years ago, Ryan Golinski was an eighth-grader coming to watch his brother Kevin play left field and bat second for Richards.
“I was playing a lot of baseball myself,” Golinski said. “But my mom would always drag me here. Then I started to love baseball even more and more every time I got to watch Richards play.”
Fast-forward a couple years, and guess what? There’s another Golinski playing left and hitting second behind UIC recruit Sean Cody.
Golinski had a big day on April 22 when the Bulldogs walked off Reavis 7-6 to complete a sweep of their two-game South Suburban Red series. He went 2-for-4 with a double, a hit by pitch and four RBIs for Richards, which ended the week at 11-5 overall and 6-2 in the conference.
Ozzie Lopez went 3-for-4 with two RBIs for Richards against Reavis. Cody was 1-for-3 with a walk, hit by pitch and three runs, including the game-winner on Max Kawa’s single in the bottom of the eighth. Kawa also picked up the win in relief.
“Sean always gets on base,” Golinski said. “I always have a chance to get an RBI. … My job is to get him in.”
Golinski spent part of last season on the varsity. He has had some jitters as he adjusted to a bigger role this spring.
“Of course I do,” he said. “It’s hard … but first start I had, I had a good game and it all clicked from there. …
“I always looked forward to the next step, no matter what it is: tee-ball to peewee ball or whatever. But this is fun. This is better than I imagined.”
“He’s a sophomore and I’m not trying to rush guys,” Bulldogs coach Jeff Kortz said, “He jumped out there and he swings the bat … and he’s done a good job for us playing defense.”
Richards opened the series with a 3-2 win on April 21, which was its first win over the Rams in Cody’s four varsity seasons.
“That was one of his goals,” Kortz said. “When you’re the top dog, everybody tries to go after you. We hung together and played well.”
Parker Zasada was 3-for-3 with a double, a walk and three runs for Reavis, which ended the week at 13-7 overall and 8-2 in the SSC Red.
“Our boys come back and compete every time,” Rams coach Kyle McKinley said. “We went down, we came back, we went down, we came back. So it’s a good testament. We’ve … got a team that’s experienced. We’ve been here before, but I still have full confidence in our boys.”
Ryan Golinski is a heck of a baseball player, and he comes from a family where the kids are really good baseball players.