Baseball: Metea Valley outslugs Naperville North
From beginning to end, Metea Valley's baseball team was relentless at the plate.
The Mustangs had no choice.
They pulled out Wednesday's slugfest 14-8 against Naperville North in Aurora to claim two of three games in their DuPage Valley Conference series.
After breaking out to a 4-0 lead, Metea Valley (5-4, 2-3) had to rally twice - and kept trying to thwart Naperville North (3-5, 1-2) rallies. Finally, the Mustangs broke it open with a 5-run bottom of the sixth.
Anthony Greco, who went 3-for-4 with 5 RBI, provided much-needed insurance with a 2-run triple.
"We were focused all day during pregame and just took good approaches and put good swings on the ball," Greco said. "It was a good series for us. Hopefully, we can keep it up."
Ashton Creal helped Metea Valley build the 4-0 first-inning lead with a 2-run single, but Naperville North answered with 3 runs in the second behind Jack Majcher's 2-run single.
The lead swayed, with the Huskies grabbing leads of 5-4 and 6-5. Even after Greco's 2-run double boosted Metea Valley's margin to 9-6, Naperville North still battled to within a run by scoring twice in the fifth.
Mustangs reliever Trey Long, however, ultimately stabilized the game. He entered with two on and no outs in the fifth and closed out the win by retiring nine of the 12 batters he faced.
"It was great for the kids to come back after being down 4-0," said Huskies coach Carl Hunckler. "Unfortunately we didn't make some plays and, credit to them, they took advantage. We've just got to get better."
Conner Lovely and Jack Feeley each had 3 hits for Metea Valley. Naperville North starting pitcher Jack Whitley went 3-for-4.
After playing three games in as many days and with multiple games still to play this week, both sides combined to burn through seven pitchers on Wednesday. They'll be searching for arms as the grind continues.
"They kept coming at us the whole game and that was good for us," said Mustangs coach Craig Tomczak. "It was a challenge for us. That's the kind of thing we need."
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