Hayes pitches, hits Naperville Central to win

Keegan Hayes threw her arms in the air in disbelief and smiled as she rounded second base.

Nobody was more surprised about her big hit than the Naperville Central sophomore.

Hayes hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the fourth inning off Glenbard North ace Lilly Fecho, and she made it stand with some clutch pitching as No. 10 Naperville Central beat the No. 1 Panthers 2-1 in a Wednesday matchup of DuPage Valley Conference leaders.

Hayes’ homer was her first at any level, coming off one of the best pitchers in the state, and helped put Naperville Central (21-5, 9-1) into the conference lead with a week left.

“I’m going to remember this one for a while,” Hayes said. “I hadn’t been hitting Lilly well, so I was shocked.”

Fecho struck out Hayes in all three at-bats in the teams’ first meeting, a 9-1 Glenbard North win April 23 in Naperville. Hayes went down swinging with the bases loaded and two out in the first inning Wednesday.

Next time up, with Kaitlyn Skarecky on second base with one out after a leadoff double, Hayes quickly fell behind in the count 0-2. Then she drove a riseball that carried over the fence in center.

It was only the second homer allowed by Fecho this year and snapped a 35 inning Panthers scoreless streak.

“Off the bat it felt like a dinker to center field,” Hayes said. “It didn’t feel like a home run.”

“The line on Lilly is that if you don’t get to her early, you’re not going to get to her,” said Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum. “But our kids are pretty resilient.”

Hayes worked around Redhawks errors in the fourth and fifth innings to preserve the lead. In the seventh Glenbard North’s Stephanie Campos singled to lead off. After a sacrifice bunt and a groundout Alex Caliva walked, bringing up Fecho with the game on the line.

Fecho hit a rocket that sure-handed Redhawks shortstop Kelsey Gonzalez smothered and flipped to second for the final out.

“Lilly hit it right on the screws,” Glenbard North coach Josh Sanew said. “Their shortstop, there’s a reason why she’s going to play (Division I) ball. She’s one heck of a ballplayer and made a great play on it.”

Hayes (12-3), who allowed 4 hits while striking out two, hasn’t lost a start since the Benet game April 5.

“I’m very impressed with her growth as a pitcher mentally,” Nussbaum said.

Naperville Central is in the driver’s seat for its first DVC title since 1989.

Just don’t tell the Redhawks that yet.

“Let’s just take one game at a time,” Nussbaum said. “I’d like to get home before I worry about tomorrow.”

After Fecho escaped trouble in the top of the first, Glenbard North scored its only run in the bottom half.

Caliva singled, Fecho reached on an error, and with two out Kelsey Muller doubled in Caliva. But further clutch hits eluded the Panthers (25-2, 9-2) from there, a recent pattern that proved costly.

“We had so many opportunities to score, and most of the year we’ve been good at picking up the big hit,” Sanew said. “Today we just didn’t have it. We really haven’t swung the bats well the last few games.”

Fecho (19-2), who had combined with Lindsey Cherry for five straight shutouts coming in, was dominant save for the one mistake. She struck out nine, yielding 7 hits.

“She’s been so dominant,” Sanew said, “but you gotta give her some support to back her up.”