Wheaton North 3, Naperville Central 2
Must-win baseball games in April are rare at best.
But after Wheaton North dropped both ends of Saturday's doubleheader to Naperville Central, the Falcons approached Tuesday's rematch like it was a late May playoff game.
Scoring all their runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, Wheaton North rallied for a 3-2 victory over the host Redhawks to avoid being swept in the three-game DuPage Valley Conference series.
The win also keeps the Falcons (14-6, 9-3) atop the league standings.
"We really needed this one," said complete-game winning pitcher Jack DeAno. "It was a little pressure, but after the first inning my coach just told me to calm down. That helped a lot."
The visiting team on the scoreboard, Naperville Central (12-7, 7-5) jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. John Holm started a 3-for-3 day at the plate by ripping an RBI double to right-center field. Marc Mantucca's groundout scored the second run.
Redhawks starting pitcher Pat Kaminska (3-2) rolled through 4½ scoreless innings, striking out the side in the fourth. A one-out hit batter in the fifth inning, however, opened the door for Wheaton North.
Bobby Munro singled David Harper to third and then stole second. That set up DeAno's game-tying 2-run single up the middle. The two-out rally continued when Ryan Javech doubled home DeAno.
Kaminska was stellar otherwise, striking out nine and walking none while scattering 6 hits in 6 innings.
"There's no mistakes in this game," Redhawks coach Bill Seiple said of the errorless play by both teams. "It wasn't that anyone threw the ball around. They just made one or two more plays and swung the bat a little bit better than we did."
DeAno improved to 5-0, striking out eight, walking two and allowing 7 hits. The Redhawks put runners on first and second to start the sixth, but DeAno retired the next three batters to maintain the 3-2 lead. For the game the Redhawks stranded three runners in scoring position.
DeAno closed out the victory by striking out the side in the seventh.
"That was a well-played high school game," said Wheaton North coach Dan Schoessling. "Two very good pitchers going at it, and we were fortunate that when we got our opportunities we took advantage and pushed across those 3 runs."