Naperville Central 1, Glenbard North 0

Glenbard North displayed an amazing ability to get runners into scoring position.

Naperville Central ace Natalie Wunderlich proved to be just as amazing at stranding them.

The Panthers loaded the bases with one out in the second inning Thursday afternoon. They placed runners on second and third with one out in the third, then repeated that feat in the fourth.

None of the Panthers negotiated the final 60 feet of basepath.

Wunderlich stranded 12 runners, including seven in scoring position, to enable Jori Gonzalez's controversial sacrifice fly to hold up for a 1-0 DuPage Valley Conference victory in Naperville.

Naperville Central (15-7, 7-3), which has played nine consecutive 1-run games in DVC action, stayed within 2 games of league-leading West Chicago.

"I don't think you could see a much better outing in terms of getting outs when we needed outs," said Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum. "And they're a very good hitting team."

Wunderlich (13-4) earned just 5 strikeouts -- a far cry from her 18-strikeout performance when the Redhawks edged the Panthers 2-1 in 12 innings last month -- but three of her whiffs came with runners on third as she kept pounding a generous outside corner.

"Inside, (baserunners) make me more tense and nervous, but I know I have to buckle down," Wunderlich said. "They kind of knew what I was going to throw from facing them for 12 innings before, so I had to mix it up a lot more than I did the first time.

"I had to mix in a lot more changeups, a lot more everything. Drop curve. Rise."

Glenbard North (12-8, 5-5) reached Wunderlich for 7 singles and 3 walks, but the visitors went just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and never got the ball out of the infield.

"That's been our biggest problem this year," said Panthers coach Josh Sanew. "We've tried to adjust and tried to talk about it. It's not a lack of getting opportunities. In some situations it doesn't even take a basehit. Get the ball in play. I think we're trying to be a little too fine with the bat."

Naperville Central got its run in the second as freshman Holly Lind led off with a walk, moved to second on Stephanie Lynch's bunt single and to third on Katie Bradley's sacrifice.

Gonzalez lofted a short fly into center and Lind slid in with the run when the throw went up the first-base line.

Sanew noticed Lind appeared to leave early and appealed the play but didn't get the call.

"She took a step and stopped and then left," Nussbaum admitted. "It looked like she left when the ball was caught, but she was already a step off. But she would have made it if she was 5 feet back because the throw was off-line."

To add injury to insult, Glenbard North outfielder Natalie Shank, the No. 2 hitter in the lineup, left the game in the first after getting hit in the left hand swinging at a Wunderlich rise.

"Her hand's pretty swollen," Sanew said. "She's got to get an X-ray. She'll probably be shut down for at least the next two days."