Naperville North wins ninth consecutive game
The West Aurora baseball team has found out the hard for two straight days that if you give Naperville North an inch, they’ll take a mile or rather the victory.
The Blackhawks (7-17, 3-9 DuPage Valley Conference) led 4-1 going into the bottom of the third Thursday at Naperville North. But the team had left the bases loaded in its half.
There were two outs when Naperville North’s Nick Solak reached on a dropped third strike, Mariano Long doubled to short center and a dropped flyball put Alex Moss on base and scored Solak and Long.
West Aurora still had a 4-3 lead at the end of it, but that inning put the Huskies (14-11, 8-4) in drive, and they went on to win 9-4 for their ninth consecutive victory.
“North is a good team and you can’t open the door and give them a glimmer of hope,” said West Aurora coach John Reeves. “You can’t do that against any DVC team. We had the opportunities yesterday and today. We have to get guys in.”
The series opened Wednesday with the Blackhawks going out to a 3-0 advantage, but with the Huskies scoring three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh to win 4-3.
West Aurora had built up its early advantage with one run in the first Thursday. Leadoff hitter Richie Renner walked, moved to third on Adam Lipscomb’s double to left and then scored on Josh Livingston’s groundball out.
Lipscomb’s two-run single in the second and Jonathon Acton’s RBI single the following inning would wrap up the run-scoring offense from the Blackhawks.
Naperville North got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second as Conner Adamski deposited a pitch over the right field fence for his third homer of the year.
“I was waiting for a pitch to hit. I take a fastball on the first pitch. I then hit it sharp down the line and my approach then was to stay back and wait for an off-speed pitch,” he said.
The Huskies had just three hits the first three innings but equaled that in the fourth. RBI singles from Marques Winnick and Solak and a run-producing triple from Long made it a 6-4 game.
A two-run single by Moss and a sacrifice fly from Solak in the sixth helped the Huskies put the finishing touches on this victory.
Sophomore Mike Laurenzo went the distance in getting the win in his first varsity start. He struck out six and also got two hits himself at the plate.
“It was a duplicate of our last game with us not getting going early,” said Huskies coach Carl Hunckler. “But of the things people recognize is that we’re a good hitting team. Their pitcher (starter Tanner Reichardt) did a good job. He was changing speeds very well against us.”
The series concludes Friday at West Aurora.
“This is a great group of guys. There’s real positive energy and our play reflects that,” Adamski said.