Baseball: Running Naperville North steals victory from Waubonsie Valley
Naperville North saw one of its runners thrown out at the plate in the fifth inning, then another in the sixth inning.
Didn't matter. The Huskies aimed to keep pressure on Waubonsie Valley's defense in Thursday's DuPage Valley Conference baseball matchup.
It paid off in the bottom of the seventh inning of a tie game when Jarred Dunnett scored all the way from first base on Brendan Lacey's two-strike sacrifice bunt. The throw sailed up the first-base line and Dunnett eventually slid under a high throw to the plate to give Naperville North a 4-3 walk-off victory over the visiting Warriors.
On the heels of scoring only 7 runs in their previous six games - all losses - the Huskies (10-15, 10-9) were determined to improve their run production on Thursday.
"We were being aggressive the whole game so I'm not surprised we won it like that," said Huskies senior starting pitcher Brett Grzesiak, who got a no-decision despite striking out six and scattering 6 hits in 6 innings. "I think we all just played better the second half of that game."
Waubonsie Valley (14-13, 9-10) took a 2-0 lead on Matt Oliver's 2-run third-inning single and reclaimed a 3-2 sixth-inning lead on Ben Jaynes' RBI double. The Huskies got a run back on Brennan Simek's run-scoring single in the fourth and tied it 2-2 in the fifth on Jack Ginzkey's RBI single.
Trevor Wojtyla's sixth-inning sacrifice fly made it 3-3. It was the lone inning Naperville North scored without the Warriors committing an error.
"They do a nice job putting pressure on the defense," said Warriors coach Bryan Acevedo. "And then we struck out nine times at the plate, and there's the difference."
Dunnett, after issuing a leadoff walk, struck out three straight in the top of the seventh to notch the win. Alex Schram pitched 6 solid innings for Waubonsie Valley.
"We haven't been scoring runs so we had to keep sending the runners," said Huskies coach Carl Hunckler. "It's tough to keep making perfect throws on us. I'm glad it finally worked out."
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