Big inning gives Naperville North a sweep

Naperville North's baseball team just waited for that one big inning.

And waited, and waited.

Better late than never it finally arrived for the Huskies, whose 8-run bottom of the sixth rallied them to a 10-5 DuPage Valley Conference win over visiting Wheaton Warrenville South.

Capping the three-game sweep was critical given the timing. The Huskies (18-2, 8-1) face Naperville Central (18-2, 9-0) for three straight games starting with Saturday's doubleheader at Naperville North, and falling a second game behind the Redhawks would have been rough.

"After the win, once we talked about Central on Saturday, if we would have lost it just would have killed our momentum," said Huskies right fielder Paul Bloodgood, whose 2-run double put his team ahead 7-5. "It feels like everything's going our way right now. We're feeling great going into Saturday."

Naperville North's 10th straight win was dicey. WW South (10-11, 3-6) broke out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a bases-loaded walk to Mike Heaton, a 2-run single by Steve Lemm and an RBI single by Parker Ryndak.

The Tigers, however, managed only 1 hit in the next four innings. They took a 5-2 lead after scoring a run in the sixth inning, but against five Naperville North pitchers they never could build upon that opening frame.

Jack Braakman (1-0) picked up the win in relief while Charlie White closed out the game with a scoreless seventh.

"We've been playing good teams, but we have to learn how to pull out games like this," said Tigers coach Tim Brylka, whose team has suffered consecutive sweeps against Naperville Central and Naperville North, and next faces Wheaton North (18-3, 8-1) in a Saturday doubleheader.

"We need to step up and win one instead of letting the other team step up," he said. "We haven't been swinging it for the last six games. Even (Tuesday) when we put up 6 runs, we didn't really hit the ball that well."

The Huskies' pivotal 8-run sixth inning opened with an error. With the bases loaded an infield single by Idris Hanidu and a throwing error led to 3 runs and a 5-5 tie.

After Bloodgood's 2-run double Mariano Long blasted a 2-run homer to make it 9-5. Dan Brown added an RBI double, his second hit of the inning, as 12 players came to the plate.

"What we talked about the whole game was that all we needed was that one inning," said Huskies coach Carl Hunckler. "Good teams come back and make a run at it."