Softball: Naperville Central takes two from Willowbrook

Perfection eluded pitcher Halle Arends and her Naperville Central softball teammates in the top of the fifth inning Saturday.

So the Redhawks went out and put together a pretty impressive bottom half of the fifth, scoring four runs and then hanging on for a 4-3 defeat of visiting Willowbrook (9-6) in the first game of a nonconference doubleheader in Naperville.

The Redhawks won the second game 5-4 in nine innings.

Arends, a freshman, retired the first 12 Warriors she faced before Willowbrook's Kaylin Schuda broke up the perfect game with a chopper in front of the plate that she just did beat out for a single. A sacrifice bunt and an error, followed by a pair of walks, including a run-scoring walk to Katie Smith, gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead.

But Arends escaped further damage. She worked out of the bases-loaded jam with a strikeout and an unassisted double play by first baseman Caitlyn Patton, who snared a line drive and stepped on the bag to double up a runner and end the threat.

The Redhawks then put together four straight hits with one out in the bottom of the fifth on their way to a 4-1 lead. Arends started things off with a single, Grace Biondo followed with a double, and they both scored as Lindsay Gonzalez slashed a single up the middle. Patton then tripled and scored on a grounder by Abby Place and it was a 4-1 ballgame.

"I thought I threw pretty well in the beginning, but then I really needed my defense at the end and they really helped me," said Arends, who picked up her third win this spring as Naperville Central (6-10) snapped a six-game skid.

The double play in the fifth was big and so was a hard liner off the bat of Jordan Marczewski that was caught by third baseman Meredith Siambekos to end the game with the tying run on third. But the biggest defensive play came one out earlier when Redhawks right fielder Savanna Schmitz went back and caught a deep drive by Zoe Dannenberg. Schmitz reached up and made the catch, fell down to the ground and then fired the ball in before Smith could think about trying to score from second base after tagging on the play.

"I was expecting it to come to me because I knew she was hitting it to the right side all day," Schmitz said. "I knew I had to get back, catch the ball and get it in real quick before the runner goes anywhere else. It was exciting."

Danneberg was robbed on the play, but her teammates had her back with some solid glove work of their own. Warriors second baseman Megan Talan saved a run with a diving stop in the second inning and it was one of several nice plays by the defenses on both sides.

"I think it was the best game we played all week so I'm proud of my teammates," said Dannenberg, who was handed the tough loss in part because of the Schmitz big catch. "I was mainly trying to hit it to right field so we could try and get another run in … props to her."

The Warriors had closed to within 4-3 after Dannenberg scored on a single by Talan and Marczewski raced home on a groundout by Schuda, sliding in safely at home just ahead of the tag from catcher Place.

But the Redhawks, who lost a trio of 1-run games during their recent skid, closed a tight win this time.

"We've been playing competitively, and I've been pleased with our improvement, but it's still nice to get a win," Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. "It's nice to battle and be competitive and to close out and win a 1-run game, instead of being on the wrong end of all these close ones."