Baseball: Naperville Central clinches share of DVC title with win at Lake Park
It took to the last inning of the last game on the last day of the DuPage Valley Conference baseball season, but Naperville Central ultimately met its marathon goal.
With Thursday's 9-3 victory over Lake Park in Roselle, the Redhawks clinched a share of the DVC championship.
They'll be co-champs with Waubonsie Valley, but that's fine with the Redhawks considering they had to win their last two games to claim a piece. After a 10-game winning streak was met by losses in six of the next seven, the roller-coaster ride had a happy ending.
"Baseball's a grind," said Redhawks senior Jon Barker, who broke open the game with a bases-clearing seventh-inning triple. "We've stuck to the process all season, and we've embraced it."
The score was tied 3-3 until the top of the sixth when pinch-hitter Austin Armstrong singled home the go-ahead run for Naperville Central (22-10, 16-8). The Redhawks tacked on 5 insurance runs in the seventh, starting with Michael Nerger's bases-loaded walk and capped by Barker's triple and Austin Sherman's sacrifice fly.
Tyler Brinker was the winning pitcher, closing the game with 3-plus scoreless innings in relief of starter Ryan Eiermann.
"I was just trying to get in there and do my thing," Brinker said. "This was the game we were really fired up for. We really wanted to get out here and play."
Lake Park (19-12, 14-10) took a 1-0 second-inning lead on starting pitcher Connor Cook's RBI single, but Beau Buchanan's run-scoring single tied it in the third for the Redhawks.
Barker's RBI double sparked a 2-run fourth and a 3-1 lead for the Redhawks. Lake Park answered in the bottom of the inning, starting with a solo home run by Dan Lamz and finishing with Jim McDonald's game-tying double.
"We just ran out of gas," said Lake Park coach Dan Colucci. "We had a couple opportunities and had them on the ropes a little bit, but we made some mistakes that cost us."
Buchanan, Nerger and Barker had 2 hits for Naperville Central. Lamz added a fifth-inning double to his home run.
"We're in a conference with nine quality programs, and it's a marathon," said Redhawks coach Mike Stock. "We rode a roller coaster for a long time, and our guys hung in there."
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