Downers Grove North bats unstoppable
The plate approaches by Downers Grove North’s baseball team may have differed, but they all worked.
The Trojans did a little bit of everything offensively in Monday’s 20-0 West Suburban Silver victory over Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn.
With Silver sweeps over York, Proviso West and Glenbard West now in the rearview mirror, Downers North (15-3, 11-1) faces tough series against Oak Park and Hinsdale Central in its drive toward a conference title.
“Conference games are always the most important,” said Trojans senior Troy Southard, who went 3-for-4 with a double and 4 RBI on Monday. “We’ve got probably the two toughest series coming up with Oak Park and Hinsdale Central, so if we can take two from them we win conference. There’s never an easy game in this conference.”
Downers North made Monday’s game much easier by scoring 11 runs in the top of the first inning. Connor Kopach set a clear tone by leading off the game with a home run.
The Trojans sent 17 players to the plate in the first inning. They showed aggressiveness with 7 of their 13 hits, but they also showed patience by drawing 7 of their 10 walks.
Glenbard West (6-14, 4-11) used five pitchers in hopes of stunting the damage, but the effectiveness just wasn’t there on the mound. Southard’s 2-run double made it 13-0 in the second inning before Joe Provenzano’s third-inning grand slam helped push the margin to 19-0 in the third.
“Right now we’re trying to look for positives,” said Glenbard West coach Brian Wojtun. “We played good defense but we didn’t compete on the mound today. Part of it is a credit to Downers North being able to hit one through nine, and part of it is us not being able to make the pitches we need to in situations.”
After sitting through the top of the first inning for nearly 45 minutes, Downers North starting pitcher Lucas Fisher escaped from a one-out jam with runners on first and second. Fisher allowed 2 of Glenbard West’s 3 hits in the first inning and walked one batter in the fifth.
Spencer Refer and Grant Greeno had back-to-back hits in the first inning, but the Hilltoppers never threatened after that.
“The biggest thing was Fish coming out after putting some runs on the board in the first inning and putting a zero up there,” said Trojans coach Chad Isaacson.
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