Naperville North powers past Downers Grove North

You couldn’t blame Naperville North’s baseball players for swinging for the fences on Monday.

Three times the host Huskies homered, and the trio of blasts powered them to a 17-7 six-inning victory over Downers Grove North in the Class 4A Plainfield South regional quarterfinals.

Naperville North (11-19), the Neuqua Valley sectional’s 16th seed, advances to Wednesday’s regional semifinals to face No. 2 Plainfield North, which beat the Huskies 10-0 in nonconference play at the beginning of the season.

“Right when we got here we threw up some grass and saw the wind was blowing out to right-center,” said Huskies center fielder Jack Braakman, whose grand slam keyed an 8-run third inning. “When I was up to bat I kind of thought about the sac fly, and it just kept drifting and went out.”

Naperville North set the tone in the bottom of the first inning when the first two batters — Nick Solak and Dave Considine — homered to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead. Even after No. 17 Downers North (13-22) struck for 4 unearned runs in the top of the second, 2 runs scoring on Troy Southard’s single, Naperville North wasn’t about to sweat a 5-2 deficit.

The Huskies responded with the 8-run third, a frame where the first nine batters reached base and the first eight scored. Winning pitcher Mariano Long and Conner Adamski each had RBI doubles.

“Offensively we hit the ball and put it in play,” said Huskies coach Carl Hunckler. “The issue at hand was to find ways to get on base. Errors, walks and then some big hits.”

Downers North tried to chip away at the 10-5 deficit with Matt Underdown’s fourth-inning solo homer and Ross Johnson’s RBI single in the fifth. Naperville North, however, also kept adding to the scoreboard as everyone in the lineup had at least 1 hit.

Considine’s 2-run triple in the fifth inning pushed Naperville North’s lead to 13-7. Four runs in the sixth inning ended the game. Tyler Gehr sent a rocket to the gap to drive in the winning run.

“The third inning stung,” said Downers North coach Chad Isaacson. “The big thing that they did was that every time we got one or two, they kept adding on. Whenever we’d shrink the gap, they’d bring it back up again. They’re good hitters and they were able to get in good hitters’ counts and drive the baseball.”