Baseball: Benet rallies past Naperville North
Benet baseball coach Scott Lawler admitted his team fell asleep a bit in the fifth and sixth inning.
The Redwings woke up just in time.
Scoring 4 runs in the top of the seventh, Benet rallied for Saturday's 7-6 nonconference victory at Naperville North.
The Huskies (0-5) scored 3 runs in both the fifth and sixth inning to claim a 6-3 lead, but the Redwings (3-3) answered. Mike Dunn's pinch-hit 2-run single made it 6-5, and then P.J. Wagener drove in the tying and go-ahead runs with a single and error.
Dunn came on in relief in the bottom of the seventh and stranded the bases loaded, thanks in part to a nice catch in left field by Erik Jones, to preserve the win.
"In baseball you have those days where things just happen," Dunn said. "You just put it behind you. All of us can hit, and we trust ourselves at the plate. We put together a couple nice basehits, some good at-bats, and it just kind of happened for us."
Benet seemed in control after scoring twice in the first and once in the fourth to build a 3-0 lead. Starting pitcher Steven Arrowsmith singled in a run and Jack Schneider's fielder's choice scored the third run.
Naperville North rallied in the fifth inning, scoring 3 runs on Brendan Lacey's 2-run bloop double and a wild pitch. Three Benet errors opened the door for 3 runs and a 6-3 Huskies lead in the sixth.
"The effort was not very good in the fifth and sixth inning," Lawler said. "But I give them a lot of credit. It could have been very easy to just lay down, and they did fight back in that last inning."
Jones went 3-for-5 for Benet while Lacey went 2-for-3. Matt Moloney picked up the win in relief of Arrowsmith and Jake Young, and Dunn earned the save.
The bottom of the seventh marked the second time in the game Naperville North stranded the bases loaded. The Huskies stranded 11 runners overall.
"The guys came back really nice and had some good things happen," said Huskies coach Carl Hunckler. "It's the whole game, though. We just leave way too many people on base. This would have been a great win for us, but we're just going to have to keep working. These guys have to understand that our margin for error is very small. We need to do the right things."
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