Redhawks return to Elite Eight
Off the top of his head Bill Seiple couldn't remember how many times his Naperville Central baseball team had advanced to the Elite Eight summer state tournament.
One thing's for sure, though. There's no time like the present.
The Redhawks (29-10) - who have played in the Elite Eight somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 times - earned a 2008 berth with Thursday's 6-2 win over Neuqua Valley in the Glenbard South regional final in Glen Ellyn.
Naperville Central will play the Lockport regional champion, either Minooka or Lincoln-Way East, at 11:30 a.m. Monday at Naperville's North Central College in the opening day of IHSBCA Elite Eight pool play.
"You know what, we're starting to make plays," coach Seiple said. "We're going to have to keep playing very well and we'll see what happens."
Top-seeded Naperville Central struck for all its runs in a decisive third inning against the No. 2 Wildcats (24-9), starting with Matt Cmiel's RBI single that broke a scoreless tie.
Pat Kaminska followed four batters later with a 2-run single before Mike Oles padded the lead with a 3-run homer over the left-field fence.
"Our team just came together," Oles said. "That's the most energy I think we've ever had. We just performed well."
Complete-game winning pitcher Dave Ludwig rolled through the first three innings, retiring the first eight batters he faced. He surrendered lone runs in the sixth and seventh innings but gutted out the win after throwing a handful of innings on Monday.
Ludwig scattered 7 hits while striking out three and walking two. Only one of the runs against him was earned.
"It really took the heat off," Ludwig said of the 6-run outburst. "We were hitting everything and my fielders were fielding everything. It felt good today."
Neuqua Valley reliever Craig Provow pitched 3 innings of hitless and scoreless relief, but the damage already had been done.
Jordan Williamson's one-out double led to an error and an unearned sixth-inning run for the Wildcats, who were seeking their first Elite Eight appearance. Williamson singled home a run in the seventh inning, but with runners on second and third Cmiel made a diving catch in center field to end the game.
"It was that one inning," said Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner. "They made far fewer mistakes than we did and got the barrel on the ball a few more times than we did. And they earned the win."