Win over Metea gives Redhawks sectional title

Naperville Central’s baseball team is back.

The Redhawks pounded their way to a 12-2 six-inning victory over Metea Valley in Saturday’s Class 4A Romeoville sectional final. The win marks the program’s fifth sectional title overall, its fourth since 2006 and its third in the last four years.

History — especially against a burgeoning program in Metea Valley — was definitely on the side of fifth-seeded Naperville Central (27-12).

“Each year’s different, a different crew,” said Redhawks coach Mike Stock. “We know this group ... we’re there. It’s a matter of who comes out and plays well. And right now our kids are playing with confidence.”

A pair of runs by No. 10 Metea Valley (20-19) in the top of the fifth inning kept the game going at 10-2. In the bottom of the sixth, the Redhawks ended the game with back-to-back hit batters — Cody Campbell and Jeff Lucas — with the bases loaded.

Beyond those two at-bats, though, it was Naperville Central doing most of the hitting. The Redhawks exploded for 17 hits, including three apiece from winning pitcher Jimmy Nashert, Blake Butler and Jeff Schank, who doubled three times and pitched a scoreless sixth.

After Nashert (5-1) escaped a first-and-third threat with one out in the top of the first inning, Naperville Central responded with 2 runs in the bottom of the inning. Nashert, who went 3-for-4 with a triple and 3 RBI, started the barrage with a single on the first pitch of the inning.

The Mustangs nearly emerged unscathed but Brian Schiemann’s bad-hop single to right drove in the 2 runs with two outs.

“I had trouble locating my stuff today and the lead really helped me keep comfortable up there,” Nashert said. “I just tried to battle out of the tough situations I got into. It was a lot less pressure, the fact that we got the lead.”

The Redhawks took further advantage of Metea Valley’s missed first-inning opportunity by putting 5 runs on the board in the second. Campbell, Schank, Nashert, Nick Lopez and Ross Murphy each drove in runs.

Nashert drove in 2 runs with a third-inning single to push the lead to 10-0, but the Mustangs extended the game by tallying 2 runs in the top of the fifth on RBI singles from Ryan Solomon and Michael Mooney.

“Baseball’s a funny game sometimes,” said Mustangs coach Craig Tomczak, whose team upset Neuqua Valley 2-1 in Friday’s sectional semifinals. “We come up against Naperville Central, a good team, and get first and third in the first, and we get nothing out of it. Momentum switches a little and all of a sudden we’re almost out of a jam and that ball hits a piece of dirt in front of Mooney and bounces up. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Naperville Central advances to face Minooka, a 9-0 winner over O’Fallon, in the University of Illinois supersectional game at 4:30 p.m. Monday in Champaign with a berth in the 4A semifinals on the line.

“In the other playoff games we were hitting OK and getting lucky, but today we earned it,” Schank said. “It was awesome.”