Big inning hurts Palatine in loss

The one big inning Naperville Central awaited was the same one Palatine tried to avoid.

Scoring all their runs in the bottom of the fifth, the host Redhawks pulled away to Tuesday's 7-2 nonconference baseball victory over visiting Palatine.

Naperville Central (3-2) trailed 1-0 heading to the fifth after the Pirates (1-6) scored the opening run in the second. Matt Wieber reached on an error and later scored on Dan Pilguy's bunt single.

Redhawks winning pitcher Andy Pucher (1-0) and counterpart Steve Reis (0-1) were locked in a pitchers' duel until Naperville Central sent 11 batters to the plate in the bottom of the fifth.

Palatine played a pretty sound game before 3 errors and 2 walks compounded the damage caused by the Redhawks' 5 hits.

"Just too many fundamental errors in that one inning," said Pirates coach Paul Belo. "That's kind of been our nemesis this whole season. We'll have that one inning.

"But it's early baseball stuff, stuff that we'll be able to correct once we're outside on a regular basis."

A bunt single by Matt Soria sparked the burst by the Redhawks. Jimmy McInerney tied the game with an RBI single and Pat Kaminska doubled him home.

Five more runs followed to extend the lead to 7-1. Sean Garbarino smashed a 2-run single and Soria capped the rally with an infield single that scored a run.

"We're going to have days where we're up and down and crazy," said Redhawks coach Bill Seiple. "But we can't be tentative. These guys have got to turn it loose and do all the things winning teams do."

Pucher cruised through the middle innings, retiring eight straight at one point. Through five innings the Pirates hit only two balls out of the infield including Jeff Emerich's third-inning triple.

Palatine notched its second run in the top of the sixth when Emerich doubled and scored on Byron Skinner's double.