Naperville North upsets No. 1 Benet
Naperville North coach Jerry Kedziora’s suggestion before the season that his offense was deeper without graduated star Sammy Marshall sounded debatable at the time, if not crazy.
Maybe he was on to something.
Sophomore catcher Kailee Budicin went 4-for-4 with a homer and 5 runs batted in to lead a 12-hit attack, and the Huskies knocked off No. 1 Benet 9-5 on Wednesday in Lisle.
“We have hitters up and down this lineup. Everyone can hit,” Budicin said. “Beating Benet, that’s a big confidence booster.”
Budicin had 3 hits, including a double and her first homer of the year, in Monday’s 13-2 rout of No. 16 St. Charles East. Benet (12-2) is the third ranked team to lose at the hands of the Huskies. Naperville North (6-3) beat No. 12 Bartlett a couple weeks back.
“But this was definitely the big one, being the rivalry we have and what Benet’s been doing to teams,” Kedziora said. “One through nine these kids are hitting the ball hard right now. I haven’t seen this at Naperville North in a long time.”
Budicin golfed a two-strike RBI double in the first inning, singled in Steph Tobin in the third and lined an RBI single to center in the fourth, capping a four-run Huskies rally that gave them a 6-3 lead. Earlier in the inning Tara Degl’Innocenti lined a shot off the third baseman’s glove into left for a go-ahead two-run single.
Benet drew within 6-5, but Budicin capped her day in the seventh by turning on an inside fastball for a two-run homer to left.
“She made me look good there,” Kedziora said, “because we were thinking about moving the runner over. She’s our hot hitter right now.”
Count Benet coach Jerry Schilf, whose pitching has given up 26 runs over its last four games, as a believer.
“They were the better team today,” Schilf said. “They came out aggressive and hit the ball hard, and their catcher killed us. They’re going to give the DVC a run.”
Benet’s vaunted offense came in averaging over 12 runs per game, fresh off a 22-4 blitz of Wheaton Warrenville South on Tuesday.
Naperville North pitcher Kathleen Hahne (5-1) didn’t shut down the Redwings, but she kept them from going off.
Benet scored 3 times in the first on RBI singles from freshmen Stephanie Abello and Emily York — for York, her 39th RBI of the season — and a successful double steal. The Redwings tacked on an unearned run in the fourth, and Abello led off the fifth with her fifth homer of the year.
But Benet stranded nine runners and had the tying runner thrown out at the plate to end the fifth. Still trailing 6-5 in the sixth, Benet had Maeve McGuire on second with two out, but Julianne Rurka’s vicious line drive up the middle was caught by Hahne in what amounted to self-defense.
“We hit the ball hard but right at them,” Schilf said. “The kids realize that we’re not going to score 12 or 13 runs a game. We gave up 9 today, and we can’t expect to win that, although I think they believed that they could.”
York was 3-for-4 and Ali Michalik 2-for-3 for Benet. Huskies freshman leadoff hitter Alexis Solak was 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored.