Glenbard North squeezes Naperville Central

As the squeeze play developed, it sure looked like suicide to Glenbard North coach Josh Sanew.

“I thought she was dead,” Sanew said.

Somehow Kristen Hoffman snuck in safely.

Hoffman scored on an Ashley Stiver squeeze bunt with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning, giving No. 5 Glenbard North a thrilling 2-1 win over No. 9 Naperville Central in Carol Stream.

Pinch-hitter Hoffman doubled with two strikes and one out in the 11th off Redhawks ace Alyssa Wunderlich, and moved to third on a wild pitch. Stiver bunted toward first base, and there was hesitation on the throw home.

Hoffman still arrived after the throw, but dove over the tag and slightly behind home plate, slapping it with her left hand.

“I saw she pretty much had the ball as I was coming and I thought there was no way I was gonna be safe just sliding in there normally,” Hoffman said. “I was totally on the opposite side of the base with my body and I just stuck my arm out there. My hand got in there — barely.”

Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum, alone in the dugout well after the game, remained incredulous about an out not made.

“We had the girl out by a mile,” Nussbaum said, “and I don't know what happened. No excuse for that.”

Glenbard North (12-1, 4-1 DuPage Valley Conference) won its second straight extra-inning game via the squeeze bunt. On Saturday Bri Harn bunted in Kelsey Muller to beat West Aurora 3-2 in nine innings.

“I just wanted to bunt it first-base side, so Kristen has an easy pathway. I was just hoping she'd get down,” Stiver said. “We focus more on hitting than bunting in practice but it's good that we can put one down when we need it.”

Both Wunderlich and her counterpart Lilly Fecho showed the moxy of future Division I pitchers, time and again working their way out of trouble.

Glenbard North tied the game 1-1 in the sixth on three straight singles, Sydney Benz singling in Harn with one out. But Wunderlich left runners at second and third, weathered a two-on, two-out jam in the seventh and stranded the bases loaded in the eighth.

Wunderlich (6-3) struck out 13, scattering 8 hits, 4 walks and 2 hit batters.

“It's cold, we'd been out there for 11 innings, we just thought we need to take a shot now with the bunt and see what happens,” Sanew said. “Wunderlich's too tough of a pitcher; you're not going to get too many hits in an inning off her. You saw that today.”

Naperville Central (13-4, 4-1), which had its eight-game winning streak snapped, grabbed a 1-0 lead in the fourth on doubles by Meghan Griffin and Maddi Doane. Griffin reached base five times, four of them leading off an inning. The fact that she only scored once ate at Nussbaum, whose team has scored 5 runs for Wunderlich over her last four starts.

“In her last 34 innings she's given up 3 runs,” Nussbaum said. “We've got to win all those games, when she pitches that well. We gotta score more runs for her than that. It's not like we didn't have chances.”

Fecho (9-1) struck out eight, surrendering 6 hits and 2 walks.