Baseball: Lis 1-hitter just what Naperville Central needed
It's something Naperville Central's baseball team has been waiting to see.
The best-pitched game of the season.
Zac Lis provided it in Thursday's 5-1 DuPage Valley Conference victory at Wheaton North, a 1-hitter with 7 strikeouts and a walk. The senior retired the last six batters he faced.
"It was a good game all around," Lis said of the 101-pitch complete game. "I've got to hand it to the defense behind me. They played fantastic. I just kept making pitches in the zone and trying to keep it away from guys. I kept mixing it up and trying to keep them off-balance."
Like nearly everyone else in the DVC, it's been an up-and-down season on the mound for the Redhawks (14-12, 11-9). That disappeared with Lis on Thursday.
He coaxed nine groundball outs for shortstop Sam Hojnar, second baseman Patrick Boyer, third baseman Connor Graefen and first baseman Jared Suchevits, a group that also snared three lineouts and a popout.
Wheaton North (17-11, 13-7) had its one chance in the bottom of the fifth with a two-out rally. An error pulled the Falcons within 4-1, but Lis stranded runners at first and second.
"They made a lot of nice plays throughout the game," said Falcons coach Dan Schoessling. "It seemed like when we did make decent contact, we hit it right at somebody. We really only had that one opportunity, and their kid did a good job minimizing the damage and getting out of it."
Naperville Central took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on a Michael Oliver RBI groundout and a wild pitch. An error allowed 2 runs to score in the fourth inning, and Connor Graefen singled in a sixth-inning run.
Ryan Russman, who pitched 4 innings of relief, had Wheaton North's lone hit with a sharp single to center in the fifth inning. Tommy Carlsen went 2-for-3 with a double for the Redhawks, who aim for a three-game sweep of the series on Friday.
"Zac pitched to contact, got a lot of groundballs and we made some solid plays," said Naperville Central coach Mike Stock. "He's a former freshman B team player who made himself into one of our best pitchers. That was the best outing we've had all year."
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