Naperville North's LaCosse tosses shutout in his turn on mound

Baseball coaches typically dread a five-game week because of the toll it takes on a pitching staff.

Not Naperville North coach Carl Hunckler. He and the Huskies relish the chance to utilize their depth on the mound.

On Saturday it was Matt LaCosse's turn to show his stuff. The junior right-hander pitched a 1-hitter with 7 strikeouts to help Naperville North to a 10-0 six-inning nonconference win over visiting Neuqua Valley.

"If he can limit the walks and not put himself in pressure situations, he's going to have a great two years for us," Hunckler said of LaCosse. "It's unbelievable. We've played every day this week and it's a nice situation for us to have that type of depth."

Also nice was the 3-0 lead Naperville North (11-2) grabbed in the bottom of the first inning behind Paul Bloodgood's 2-run triple and Mariano Long's sacrifice fly. Three bunt singles and Andrew Arenson's 2-run single allowed the Huskies to pile on 5 runs in the fourth inning.

Neuqua Valley (7-4), playing for the sixth straight day and the eighth time in nine days, struggled mightily in the field. The Wildcats committed 6 errors - two apiece in the first and fourth innings - to open the door for Naperville North's outbursts.

"They were better than us physically, they were better than us mentally, better than us offensively and defensively ... they were clearly the better team today," said Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner. "I think our team is talented enough to win our conference and maybe a regional. But we are clearly not tough enough mentally or physically. And I think a drubbing like this may help them to figure it out."

Naperville North scored its final 2 runs in the sixth inning, both on wild pitches.

LaCosse surrendered the lone Neuqua Valley hit in the second inning on Chris Medhurst's infield single. LaCosse walked three batters and another reached on an error, but only one player reached second base for the Wildcats.

"I got off to kind of a shaky start because I was nervous, but after I got the first out I just settled down," LaCosse said. "We have so many pitchers who can go out there, it really shows what we're capable of. Having this kind of pitching is the difference between winning and losing."