Hayes a find for Naperville Central
Andy Nussbaum and Naperville Central never seem to run out of good pitching.
Could Keegan Hayes be the next gem?
The Redhawks sophomore threw one Thursday, taking a shutout into the seventh inning of her first varsity start and striking out six in a 4-2 win over Waubonsie Valley in Aurora.
Outside of a leadoff bunt single in the fourth, Hayes was perfect through 6 innings.
“I just came out confident,” Hayes said, “but it’s easy to come out confident when you have the hitting we had today. I’ve been working on my changeup a lot, trying to hide it. It was really working today. The umpire was giving us a few inches today on both sides of the plate and I definitely used that to my advantage.”
Naperville Central has graduated two of the area’s best pitchers the last three years in sisters Natalie and Alyssa Wunderlich. The pitching rubber is still in good hands, though. Loyola-bound senior lefty Kristina Vizza is a very good No. 1, and Hayes would be the ace of many teams.
“We’ll go as far as our pitching carries us,” Nussbaum said. “Keegan was sharp. To retire 19 out of 20 to start the game, we’re talking about maybe four or five performances in my 29 years that we’ve had like that.”
Hayes threw just 8 varsity innings as a freshman, but you wouldn’t know it by her cool demeanor. That is something she said she soaked up watching Wunderlich work last year.
“She had a poker face on the mound,” Hayes said. “I definitely learned a lot from Alyssa.”
Naperville Central (2-0) was missing standout shortstop Kelsey Gonzalez, who was out of town — but the Redhawks bats didn’t miss a beat.
Two days after scoring 13 runs in a season-opening win at Bolingbrook, the Redhawks got going in the second inning. Laura Dierking smoked a one-out double off Waubonsie pitcher Shannon Hohman, and Dana Dolehide lined a run-scoring single to right. Dolehide came around to score on a booted grounder with two out.
Naperville Central padded its lead in the fifth. Maddi Doane, who was 3-for-4, tripled to left and sophomore Kaitlyn Skarecky drilled a first-pitch changeup for a two-run homer to left.
“This was a little bit of a statement game for us,” Nussbaum said. “If we play like we’re cabable of playing, it will be tough to beat us. We were able to hit like that without probably our best player.”
Highly touted freshman Hohman allowed 7 hits in her high school debut, striking out four. Waubonsie coach Alyson Kelley admitted she and Hohman will learn together from the few mistake pitches.
“Her and I just need to get on the same page,” Kelley said. “This is our first game working together and I need to know what she’s comfortable throwing in what situations. She has a good arsenal of pitches. We just need to know what she’s comfortable with, what works for her.”
Waubonsie’s offense, quiet for six-plus innings, finally woke up in the seventh. Amanda Minahan singled and Erin Hohman hit a 2-run homer to left.
Kelley said a few pregame adjustments could be in order.
“We need to do a little bit more with our hitting before games,” Kelley said. “We had a little bit of that problem at the beginning of the year. Our bats just fell sleep. It looked like they were up there swinging light poles. They need to wake their arms up, get some extra reps, get a little more live pitching. Our defense was good for the most part; they just found some spots.”