Nolan, Wheaton North win in 9th

Kahla Nolan hit her spots, and Wheaton North got a win that sure hit the spot.

Nolan shut out Glenbard North's potent lineup for eight innings, Paige Evangelista homered leading off the ninth and the Falcons hung on to beat the Panthers 2-1 on a raw Friday afternoon in Carol Stream.

"Kahla did a great job today," Wheaton North coach Karen Calabrese said. "She hit her spots, she missed where she needed to miss, she worked around the batters that she needed to work around. This is probably her best outing of the year, by far."

The loss dropped Glenbard North (15-6, 6-3 DuPage Valley Conference) two games in the loss column back of DVC leader West Chicago. The two teams meet Monday in West Chicago.

"Monday's a must-win now," Panthers coach Josh Sanew said.

Nolan (10-6) became only the fourth pitcher this season to hold Glenbard North under 4 runs. She struck out six with error-free defense behind her.

"If it was an inside pitch I'd make sure I'd bury it in," Nolan said. "If it was an outside pitch I'd make sure it was on the corner or off the plate. The drop-curve was breaking well; they pretty much couldn't touch that."

Glenbard North left a runner on second base in the second, fourth, fifth and seventh innings.

"That's something we've done all year until today, is pick up the big hit when we needed it," Sanew said. "Today our approach was not very good. We weren't very aggressive. We were sorta soft. That hasn't been us."

Wheaton North (16-7, 4-5) stranded a runner at third base in the fourth, sixth and seven innings and a runner at second in the eighth. On a full count leading off the ninth, Evangelista drilled a no-doubter into the teeth of a stiff wind over the fence in left field.

"It felt good," Evangelista, "but I wasn't expecting it to be a home run. It could happen to anybody."

Paige Wilson followed with an opposite-field double, and with two outs Katie Thornton tripled her in.

Jenny Nelson doubled leading off Glenbard North's half of the ninth, and Alyssa Jasinski singled. Nelson scored and Jasinski moved to second on a bunt, but Nolan came back to retire the next batter on a groundout, then ended the game with a strikeout on a nasty drop curve.

Wheaton North, which ripped off an 11-game winning streak during its pre-DVC schedule, notched its first win against a DVC team ahead of it in the standings.

"I think we can compete with any team out there when we play our game," Calabrese said. "We beat a good team, and a team that we let a win slip away the last time we played them. Up until today's game we've been beating the teams we should beat. Today is a very good win."

Lilly Fecho (13-6), who struck out nine, was the hard-luck loser for Glenbard North. She has surrendered just 10 runs over her last six starts.

"Her last three, four outings she's been moving the ball, mixing up her pitches, working ahead instead of behind," Sanew said. "We had our opportunities; we just couldn't get our hits when we needed it."