Naperville Central falls to Downers Grove South

Jenny Nichols twice faced Naperville Central this season, and twice she escaped bases-loaded, none-out jams unscathed.

How does she do it?

“That's a really good question,” said the Downers Grove South senior pitcher with a laugh. “You just have to bear down. You can't throw it down the middle, but you need to throw strikes.”

Nichols wiggled out of trouble early, then beat the No. 3 seed Redhawks with her bat with 2 hits and 4 runs batted in as No. 2 Downers Grove South won a surprisingly one-sided 10-0, five-inning Class 4A Oswego East sectional semifinal on Thursday.

Downers Grove South (28-6) became the first team this season to run-rule Redhawks ace Alyssa Wunderlich. The reward is an 11 a.m. Saturday sectional final against Benet, which beat the Mustangs 2-0 in their season opener.

“To score that many runs off a pitcher like that, nobody could have expected that,” Downers Grove South coach Ron Havelka said. “This girl (Wunderlich) is big-time and our girls knew that. She was off a little bit today, but I'd take her on my team.”

In the subplot to the Mustangs' playoff run, senior Marissa Mersch singled in the first inning for her 250th career hit, 2 shy of the state record.

She walked on 4 pitches the next two plate appearances against summer teammate Wunderlich, then hit a come-backer on the game's final play.

“Not really much I can do when I get walked twice,” Mersch said, “but if everyone else is picking me up I don't really have a problem with it. The more games, the more opportunities you have.”

Mirroring their 8-2 loss to Downers Grove South in April, the Redhawks' day was opportunity lost.

Juliet Tassi singled in the first and Meghan Griffin doubled with two outs, but Nichols coaxed a comebacker to strand both. Naperville Central (24-11) started its second with three straight singles, but Nichols got another comebacker to start a rally-killing 1-2-3 double play.

In the first meeting Naperville Central saw 10 of its first 22 batters reach but left 11 runners on base.

“At the end of two innings, we had more hits than they did,” Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said, “and we're behind 5-0.”

Nichols (14-2) only allowed 2 more baserunners.

“Our plan was actually to throw both our pitchers like we did against Neuqua,” Havelka said, “but then we got the lead and she started to feel a little better on the mound. If she does struggle at all, it's usually early.”

Downers Grove South scored twice in the first. Mersch led off with a single, Danielle Trezzo reached on a throwing error and after two Wunderlich strikeouts Aleisha Bozek hit a changeup for a 2-run single.

Wunderlich (15-7), who issued six walks, walked four in the second — Mersch to load the bases — then walked Trezzo on a full count to make it 3-0. Nichols then turned on a pitch for a 2-run single.

Mersch got another free pass in the fourth, but Nichols again made it hurt by tripling to deep center to score 2 runs for a 7-0 lead.

“We were expecting to come in here and play some small ball, maybe get one run an inning at the most,” Nichols said. “We were prepared for her, but we didn't expect to do as well as we did.”

Five of Wunderlich's six walks scored. Nussbaum's justifiable decision to not wave Tassi home on Griffin's double in the first backfired. In the fifth a runner was thrown out trying to steal third with Redhawks No. 3 hitter Kelsey Gonzalez hitting.

“There was nothing we did today,” Nussbaum said, “that went right.”