Naperville North keeps building
Carl Hunckler knew the Naperville North baseball team had nothing to lose.
It was April 14, and the Huskies had just dropped a 6-5 decision to Neuqua Valley in excruciating fashion, squandering a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the seventh inning. The loss was Naperville North’s fourth of the week and ninth in 11 games.
“We had nowhere else to go but down,” said Hunckler, Naperville North’s coach. “We just said, ‘Hey guys, we have to get something going that will be positive and we can build on.’ ”
The Huskies have been building ever since.
Naperville North beat Glenbard East 12-6 on Monday to win its seventh game in a row. The Huskies are 8-1 since that loss to Neuqua Valley, running their record to 12-11 and cracking the .500 mark for the first time since March 19 when they were 2-1.
“The kids really bought into a team concept, rather than an individual concept,” Hunckler said. “When things weren’t going well earlier in the year, it was all about, ‘Why is this happening to me?’
“Now they understand that ‘Us’ is much more important than ‘I.’ ”
It doesn’t hurt that the Huskies were finally able to answer a question that has plagued them since the preseason: Who pitches after senior Mariano Long?
Naperville North tried a handful of pitchers in the Nos. 2 and 3 spots in the rotation behind Long — a hard-throwing righthander with 46 strikeouts in 38 innings of work — before finally stumbling upon seniors Brock Borgeson and Kevin Walsh. All of a sudden, the Huskies’ previously patchy pitching staff has turned into a strength.
“We just didn’t have enough consistency,” Hunckler said. “Once we solidified the pitching, that really benefited us.”
Borgeson, originally slated to be the team’s closer, has a 2.56 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 271⁄3 innings. Hunckler praised his knowledge of the game and said the 5-foot-9, 150-pound righthander relies on his fastball, forkball and changeup.
Walsh relies on his offspeed pitches to keep batters guessing. The lefty only has 11 strikeouts in 192⁄3 innings this season but has still managed to build a 3-0 record and a 2.85 ERA.
“Brock and Kevin kind of filled in that consistency,” Hunckler said. “We knew we were going to get five or six (innings) out of them each time out.”
Naperville North continued its strong play on Tuesday with Borgeson on the mound, racing out to a 6-1 lead over Glenbard East at home before rain forced play to be suspended in the third inning.
The game will be completed Saturday.
Versatile Gasbarro dominates:
On the Glenbard South baseball team, Ethan Gasbarro’s job description usually includes a little bit of everything.
He took that responsibility literally Friday, putting on a fantastic individual show as the Raiders (14-8, 7-2 Metro Suburban) beat Timothy Christian 16-0 on the road. The jack-of-all-trades junior pitched five innings of one-hit ball — striking out eight — and was equally dominant at the plate, going 4-for-4 with 3 runs and 4 RBI.
The performance raised Gasbarro’s batting average to .351, second on the team only to senior Doren Blake’s .356. He also managed to lower his ERA from 4.06 to 3.27 and push his record to 3-2.
“He was in control from the start,” Glenbard South coach Mike Riley said. “He pretty much dominated the game.”
Riley has come to expect such versatility from Gasbarro, who has played every position except first base since he made Glenbard South’s varsity as a sophomore. He opened this season as the Raiders’ second baseman, but he has spent most of his time on the mound and in the outfield because of the promotion of sophomore infielder Zach Smith.
“We’ve been lucky in that regard,” Riley said. “We’ve had a few other kids in the past who were also able to move (around). The problem is that when you have a school of 1,300 or 1,400, a lot of times the guy who is pitching in the next game was playing another position.
“You’ve got to play musical chairs to fill in those spots, and a lot of times (Gasbarro) is the guy who moves.”
When Gasbarro does play in the outfield, he often teams with junior center fielder Carl Sanders and senior left fielder Roger Dyrda to form one of the most dangerous defensive trios around.
“We’ve got three kids that can fly, and they’ve all got strong arms,” Riley said. “I’d be shocked if anybody had a stronger outfield than that combination.”
Gasbarro is also getting stronger on the mound, thanks in part to regular long-toss sessions with brother — and senior shortstop — Mitch Gasbarro.
Riley said Ethan Gasbarro’s fastball was topping out at 81-83 mph early in the season, but he was hitting 86 mph with consistency on Friday and uncorked several pitches that inched up to 88 mph. The Timothy Christian hitters could barely touch him as he improved his strikeout-to-walk ratio to 23-13 in 252⁄3 innings.
“He was throwing probably the hardest he’s thrown all year,” Riley said. “He’s been working on his long toss, and it’s starting to pay off for him.”