Naperville North wins 20th game
It was senior day Tuesday for the Naperville North baseball team. The seniors were honored in a pregame ceremony and had photos taken with their parents.
The seniors and the rest of their teammates received one more souvenir, a 4-3 victory over visiting Glenbard North that gave them a 20-win season.
The postseason begins next week, and that’s what the Huskies are focusing on like all other teams, but coach Carl Hunckler said it was a measurement that he and his team wanted to reach.
“Anytime you reach 20 wins, it’s like a first accomplishment and there are measurements. Twenty-five wins is a very good team. Thirty is an excellent team. We expected as coaches to get 20 wins and we were trying to get across to the kids to expect it. I think at the beginning of the season they were hoping for it instead of expecting it,” he said.
The Huskies, who at one time were 4-10, improved to 20-13 overall and 14-6 in the DuPage Valley Conference going into today’s series finale in Carol Stream, where they will try to sweep the Panthers (16-16, 9-11).
Naperville North jumped out to a 2-0 advantage in its half of the first. Nick Solak reached on a fielding error. Then winning pitcher Mariano Long walked. Alex Moss followed, smashing a double to the left-field fence, scoring Solak and moving Long to third. The ball was not quickly returned to infield, giving Long time to come home, and he beat the throw.
The Panthers tied the contest in the top of third. Ryan Storto doubled to the left field fence. Bryan Polowy got hit by a pitch, and both were moved up a base by Brandon Kressner’s sacrifice bunt. Josh Shine put another ball in left field, a double that scored Storto and Polowy.
The Huskies got a run each in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth Pat Mollo singled to center, moved to third on the first of Tyler Hogan’s two hits on the afternoon and scored on Marques Winick’s infield hit, created when he beat out a groundball. Winick also finished with two hits.
Long scored in the fifth. He reached on a single to left and came home later on a fielding error.
Glenbard North made it 4-3 in the sixth. A dropped flyball put Ryan Gallagher on base and he scored on Jeff LaPage’s sacrfice fly.
Long went the distance in getting the win. He allowed just three hits and struck out eight. He set the Panthers down in order four times, including the seventh inning.
“I felt pretty good. We had a lot of momentum from yesterday (a 14-3 win over Glenbard North). My arm was pretty lively. I got ahead of the hitters and good things happen when you get ahead of the hitters,” Long said.
Hunckler said Long was just being Long.
“Mariano always gives us a solid outing. When he’s on, he’s untouchable. He hits his spots and has a good fastball,” Hunckler said. “Mentally as a competitor, when he comes in he’ll challenge himself.”