Softball: Naperville Central suffers narrow loss to Oswego in sectional semifinal

Betsy Jack looked overmatched in her first two at-bats Wednesday, and for the first two pitches of her third plate appearance.

But not when it mattered.

The Oswego senior lined a two-strike offering from Naperville Central ace Avery Miller off the shortstop’s glove to drive in Adalynn Fugitt with the go-ahead run.

Oswego scored two runs in the fifth inning, and rallied past Naperville Central 2-1 in a Class 4A Yorkville sectional semifinal marked by a controversial overturned Redhawks’ home run.

“I was just trying to stay on top of the ball, not try to do too much,” Jack said. “My first two at-bats I was trying to swing through the fences. When I do that I do bad.”

Indeed, Jack struck out on three pitches in the first inning off Miller. She swung through a Miller riseball for a strikeout in the third.

Jack came to the plate in the fifth one out after Fugitt tripled in Ellalina Mahoney with the tying run. Jack fouled off the first pitch, swung through the second and took a ball before three straight fouls.

“She got underneath the ball twice; (Miller) was throwing a really good riseball,” Oswego coach Annie Scaramuzzi said. “I told her anything you can do to get on top of the ball, I don’t care what it looks like.

“Betsy is a situational hitter, she did an amazing job all year long of selflessly going up to the plate. Betsy was Betsy there.”

Jack stepped up in the batter’s box to try to catch Miller’s riseball, a pitch Jack admitted she struggles with.

“The one I hit was inside, I think it was a screw,” Jack said. “I was trying to move up to catch it before it broke. Just trying to hit a line drive and also believing in myself. I was losing confidence. Had to refresh my mind.”

Naperville Central (25-10), in its first sectional since 2015, nicked Oswego ace Jaelynn Anthony for a run in the first.

The Redhawks looked like they made it 2-0 with two outs in the third when Naperville Central homered to center field.

On an Oswego appeal, though, it was ruled that Brown missed second base, the run taken off the scoreboard.

“We saw that she missed second base and we appealed it,” Scaramuzzi said. “That’s a call that goes in our favor and I’m happy that it did. It’s a different ballgame if that’s a home run.”

“I definitely saw her jump over the base, it looked like anyway,” said Fugitt, Oswego’s second baseman. “She was celebrating early, which I get it, it’s an exciting moment. The coaches saw it right away. The little things in softball change things.”

Veteran Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum, in the other dugout, was incredulous at the call and claimed that there was video evidence that showed the runner indeed touched the bag.

“I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve never seen it called. In all the thousands of Major League Baseball games I’ve seen I’ve never seen it called. I thought she touched the bag,” Nussbaum said. “You better be 1,000% sure, 10,000% sure. Ball-strike, out-safe that’s one thing. They took a run away from us.”

The Redhawks threatened again in the fifth, with runners at second and third with one out. Cali Lenz scalded a liner that Oswego shortstop Kennedy Gengler snagged and doubled the runner off third.

“Bad break on the double play,” Nussbaum said. “Besides the home run that was the hardest-hit ball all day.”

Oswego No. 9 hitter Mahoney started the winning rally with an infield single, her second of the day, and took second on a passed ball.

Fugitt followed with an opposite-field drive to left that almost went out, scoring Mahoney. Fugitt, Oswego’s speedy leadoff hitter, had early reached on a bunt hit.

“I dragged down the line to start off but she was throwing a lot of rise balls and the defense was playing really far in,” Fugitt said. “I definitely knew I had to get the runner in from second so I had to barrel the ball.”

Oswego’s comeback win was its second of the postseason. The Panthers (21-11) also rallied twice in the sixth inning of their sectional games last year en route to a state title.

Oswego advances to face conference rival Plainfield East, who the Panthers beat 3-2 during the season, in Friday’s final.

“That’s Panther softball. We’re always like that,” Fugitt said. “We’re able to come back from anything as long as we keep our energy high.”

Anthony struck out nine and while walking two and hitting two other batters, only allowed one hit – the overturned home run.

“She did a good job of staying locked in every single pitch into a tight zone,” Scaramuzzi said. “He had a tight zone from the first pitch.”

Miller struck out four and scattered seven hits. The Redhawks were undefeated DuPage Valley Conference champs after graduating two Division I hitters.

“It was a great group,” Nussbaum said. “They far exceeded expectations. To lose a game this way, with this group, is really disappointing.”