Quick turnaround has Naperville Central feeling better

Andy Nussbaum's words couldn't have rung truer.

"What a difference 24 hours makes," said a feeling better Naperville Central softball coach.

A day after dropping a game to Downers Grove North that they led down to the last strike, Nussbaum's Redhawks scored 2 runs in the bottom of the seventh to beat Lockport 2-1 on Tuesday in Naperville.

Kelsey Gonzalez's line-drive single up the middle scored Nicole Kappelman with the winning run.

"This was a huge game for us to win - it really builds our confidence up," Gonzalez said. "We weren't too happy with what happened yesterday. To play like this today, it feels really good."

Naperville Central (6-3) trailed 1-0 heading into the last half of the seventh. The Redhawks stranded six baserunners over the game's first five innings, three leadoff hits going for naught.

Alyssa Wunderlich drilled a ground-rule double to left to start the winning rally, with courtesy runner Rachel Skinner moving to third on a Jill Andreoni sacrifice.

Kappelman went to two strikes, fouled off two pitches, then hit a squibber to third. The throw to first sailed high, scoring Skinner and moving Kappelman to second.

Gonzalez then took an 0-1 pitch from Lockport reliever Amanda Oberc back through the box.

"We've had back-and-forth games the last two years," said Lockport coach Marissa Chovanec, whose team lost to Naperville Central in last year's sectional final. "Obviously, I would have liked to have been on the other side of it, but it was a good game."

Naperville Central couldn't have asked for a better hitter up with the game hanging in the balance. Gonzalez was 4-for-4 on Tuesday with 4 hard-hit singles and is hitting .538 on the young season.

"We're trying to figure out how we can get her to bat every inning," Nussbaum joked. "For being a sophomore she steps into the box with such confidence."

Gonzalez last spring had a key 2-run single in the Redhawks' 3-0, nine-inning sectional win.

"I was feeling kind of confident," Gonzalez said, "but still you're really nervous coming up in a huge situation like that. I was just trying to hit a single. That's all I wanted to do."

Wunderlich (5-1) stifled Lockport's lineup for much of the day. The Porters (8-4) touched her for an unearned run in the second, but Wunderlich retired 13 straight batters from there until a two-out error in the sixth.

Wunderlich, who struck out four and retired Lockport in order five times, has allowed just 5 runs over her last 33 innings.

"We're going to win a lot of games with her pitching like that," Nussbaum said, "and we're getting better defensively. I'm feeling so much better about this team, especially after beating a quality team like Lockport."