Lane beats Kenwood to win the city title and celebrates twice after a bizarre ending

Lane senior Oliver Evans leaped off the mound at Wrigley Field, threw his glove into the air and celebrated winning the Public League baseball title Monday.

Evans appeared to close out the Champions’ 5-3 victory against Kenwood by getting Broncos senior Savion Flowers to ground out to first for the final out. The scoreboard proclaimed Lane as the champions, and the grounds crew headed out to the warning track in trucks to finish off their work for the night.

But it wasn’t over.

The first-base umpire had called Flowers’ grounder a foul ball. It hit Flowers in the batter’s box. No one noticed — not even Flowers, who was lying on first base, dejected.

The trucks left the field. The Lane players went to find their hats and gloves and prepared to do it all over again.

‘‘My coach came up to me and said it was a foul ball, and I thought he was messing with me,’’ Evans said. ‘‘But then I had to get back into the mental headspace of getting ready to play more baseball.’’

Evans needed only one more pitch. Flowers flied out to left field, and the second celebration began.

‘‘I knew it was my time to shine [heading into the final inning],’’ Evans said. “I was ready to step up to the moment and came right at it.’’

Evans pitched the final three innings to earn the victory.

The Champions (26-9) trailed 3-0 in the seventh and were down to their last two outs when junior Theodore Greco drew a walk. Sophomore Sebastian Wilson followed with a double to center. Senior Ethan Borggren singled to left to bring in one run before junior Tyler Rwakatare-Trapp delivered the big blow, a two-RBI double to center that put Lane ahead 4-3.

‘‘It was a changeup down the middle in my perfect spot,’’ Rwakatare-Trapp said. ‘‘And I just did everything I could to hit it.’’

Kenwood left-hander Kevari Thunderbird, who shut out Payton in the 2023 city title game, was dominant. He struck out 11 and allowed two hits in 5⅓ innings.

‘‘He gave us everything he could,’’ Broncos coach David Reed said. ‘‘I can’t be mad at any of my guys.’’

Kenwood (20-9) started the season slowly but is playing well now. Its season will continue in the state playoffs, which start later in the week.

‘‘It’s amazing to play in back-to-back city championship games,’’ Reed said. ‘‘We didn’t complete the goal, but this will make us better heading into the state playoffs.’’

The do-it-over ending wasn’t the only strange occurrence in the game. There was a 10- to 15-minute delay in the sixth when an umpire had to leave because of illness or injury. The rest of the game was played with three umpires.

‘‘Our coaches mentioned the Cubs [rain delay] in the 2016 World Series,’’ Rwakatare-Trapp said. ‘‘They played [Cleveland], and they had a delay to recuperate themselves and came back and won the game. So it reminded them of that.’’

CPS rotates the title game between Guaranteed Rate Field and Wrigley Field. Kenwood won last year on the South Side. Lane won two years ago at Wrigley.

‘‘It is unreal to play at Wrigley Field,’’ Borggren said. ‘‘The emotions were flowing from the start, and I feel like once we got settled we were into it more and things felt more realistic. Because it really felt unreal at the start.’’