Naperville Central breaks out the bats

Naperville Central baseball coach Bill Seiple says he always expects his team to hit well.

Still, it had to be pretty nice to see Saturday’s performance.

The Redhawks swept a DuPage Valley Conference doubleheader against Naperville North, winning the first game 12-2 in five innings behind lefty ace Dan Ludwig and rallying to take Game 2 10-6.

Naperville Central (13-6, 8-2) goes for the three-game sweep Monday at North Central College.

“Everyone brought it today,” said Redhawks senior Ross Murphy, who went 3-for-5 with 5 RBI on the day. “Up and down the lineup everybody hit, even the guys who stepped in.”

Naperville North (6-11, 3-7) actually led in the first game after Tyler Gehr’s first-inning sacrifice fly made it 1-0. Murphy’s 3-run homer in the bottom of the second, however, put the Redhawks ahead to stay.

Ludwig (5-1) settled down after the first inning — striking out four, walking one and allowing 5 hits — before Marques Winick’s sacrifice fly gave the Huskies their second run in the fifth.

Naperville Central, meanwhile, kept piling on runs. Run-scoring singles by Jimmy Nashert and Bryce Kirk and Ludwig’s sacrifice fly helped make it 7-1 in the third inning.

Ian Lewandowski singled home a run in the fourth and Conor Philbin’s 3-run fifth-inning homer made it 11-2. An error scored the 12th run to end the game.

“They made more plays than us,” said Naperville North coach Carl Hunckler. “Right now they’re a little bit better than us, and we’re plodding along trying to get better.”

Game 2 started great for the Huskies, who stormed to a 5-0 lead in the second inning. Mariano Long and Alex Moss had back-to-back RBI singles in the first and Moss added a 2-run double in the second.

Cody Willis came on in relief for the Redhawks to start the third inning and shut the door for 5 innings to earn the win.

Naperville Central pulled within 5-3 in the bottom of the second thanks to RBI singles from Mike Riordan and Kevin Linne. A 4-run fourth inning, highlighted by run-scoring hits by Derrick Avers and Jake DeVoy, put the Redhawks ahead to stay at 7-5.

The lead grew to 10-5 in the sixth on RBI hits from Murphy, Avers and DeVoy before the Huskies tallied a run in the top of the seventh.

“This was just a good day for us,” Seiple said. “I feel like we kind of stole one in the second one, but they didn’t really have anybody that could shut us down and we just kept pushing and chipping away.”