Orze, Glenbard North knock WW South from perch atop DVC

Wheaton Warrenville South baseball coach Tim Brylka echoed the sentiments of so many others whose team attempted to solve Glenbard North senior ace Eric Orze.

"He's the best we've seen this season," he said.

Orze pitched a no-hitter and allowed only two baserunners as the Panthers rolled to Saturday's 10-0 five-inning DuPage Valley Conference victory in Wheaton. By beating the Tigers for the second straight day, Glenbard North now has a 1-game lead over them atop the standings with a chance at a three-game sweep looming Monday.

"This was by far our best hitting day so far, so it was good to see all the guys one through nine smoking the ball," Orze said. "It made my job real easy. Just go out there and throw strikes. I didn't really have to worry about doing too much. It worked out pretty good."

WW South (10-12, 8-3) managed both baserunners in the bottom of the third on a hit batter and a bang-bang play at first when the throw sailed past the first baseman. Ruled an error by both teams, it allowed Orze to notch his first high school no-hitter.

Regardless of the ruling, it was another dominant outing for Orze (6-0), who's committed to Northwest Florida State. Nine of the 15 outs were strikeouts, including three straight to end the fifth inning and the game.

"Credit to them, they came out swinging and picked up where they left off yesterday a little bit," Brylka said. "We've got to try and get back to pitching and defense. It's hard when you don't get many guys on base, but our lineup is what it is. We've just got to figure it out."

After scoring once in the first and twice in the second off Tigers starter Chris Simpson (5-1), Glenbard North opened it up with a 5-run third inning. Two runs in the fourth inning boosted the margin to 10-0 and set up the five-inning final.

Luke Greenberg was perfect at the plate, tripling twice, doubling and driving in 3 runs. Nolan Jasinski had a 2-run single and Sam Ledbetter drove in 2 runs with a pair of singles as seven players in the lineup had a hit.

"That's the best we've played all year," said Panthers coach Rich Smelko. "Eric had great stuff today and threw a great game, and offensively that was our best approach at the plate. We hit a lot of balls hard today, and that was great to see."

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