By Sean Duncan

HINSDALE – Oak Park-River Forest was still a little chapped when it arrived at Hinsdale Central on Tuesday. The Huskies had gotten swept in Saturday’s doubleheader, which effectively dashed their West Suburban Conference championship hopes.

Hinsdale Central, on the other hand, had climbed right back in the race with the victories, and in fact needed to complete the three-game sweep to earn a share of the conference crown with Lyons Township.

That didn’t happen.

Oak Park took out its frustrations by hammering Hinsdale Central 14-3 in the final conference game of the season. Lyons Township won’t need to split the shiny trophy in half.

“It was important for us to take it away from them because we gave it away on Saturday,” said junior third baseman Tim Sutton.

 Sutton, who recently came back from a broken nose, enjoyed a day to remember. The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder drilled a pair of three-run homers in the second and seventh innings, and finished 3-for-3 with seven RBI.

“It was awesome,” Sutton said. “I was seeing the ball really well and got a couple good pitches to hit. … It would’ve been nice to win the championship, but it’s important for us to play good baseball heading into the playoffs and make a run.”

Sutton wasn’t the only offensive catalyst for the Huskies (23-10-1, 11-7), who scored 10 runs in the first three innings. Right fielder Andrew Godbold, an athletic 6-foot-3, 225-pound unsigned senior, went 3-for-3 with two solo homers, a double, a walk and three runs scored. Both of Godbold’s homers came in the same inning of Sutton’s.

“We were mad about our performance on Saturday,” said Godbold. “That wasn’t Oak Park baseball, and we weren’t proud of it. … Coach told me to relax at the plate and be free and easy – and it worked.”

The run support was more than enough for junior Will Polley (8-1), who allowed eight hits, struck out seven and walked three in six innings work. The strong 6-foot-4, 225-pound right-hander’s fastball consistently sat at 84-86 mph throughout the game.

“I thought our plate approach was really good today,” said Oak Park coach Chris Ledbetter, whose team fell to Hinsdale Central 5-3 and 5-3 on Saturday. “I was real happy to see the way Tim Sutton swung the bat.”

Hinsdale Central (16-13, 11-7), which entered the game having won eight of its last nine conference games to climb back in to the race, was led by Illinois State-bound junior second baseman Matt Anderson’s two hits and two RBI. Alex Tufano added two hits for the Red Devils.