Sports
Baseball: Central Drops Season Series To Wheaton North
Wheaton North 11, Naperville Central 9. The Redhawks battle back from an 11-run deficit, but drop two of three to the Falcons on the season.
WHEATON – Naperville Central’s baseball team went through a wide range of emotions in the finale of a three-game season series against Wheaton North Friday.
The Redhawks fell behind by 11 runs early on, and it appeared that they were going to get blown out in the battle of DuPage Valley Conference contenders.
But Central hung in there and eventually had the winning run at the plate in the seventh inning, only to see a controversial double play end the game in stunning fashion and give Wheaton North a wild 11-9 win.
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Both teams now find themselves in a three-way battle with Glenbard North for DVC supremacy with two weeks left in conference play.
“It’s too bad,” Central coach Bill Seiple said. “We’re getting beat up and there are two things you can do. You can either roll over and go home, or you can give yourself a chance with some good at-bats, and I thought we did that. If we could just play for a couple more innings, maybe we’d have a chance.”
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With the way things went in the first three innings, that thought was far from anybody’s mind. Wheaton North (15-6 overall, 10-4 DVC) pounded Central starter Cody Willis (1-2), chasing him after 1 2/3 innings with an 8-0 lead.
In the first inning, eight of the first nine Falcons to bat had hits, and seven of them scored. The big blow was Jeff Schalk’s three-run home run. Jake Schieber hit a solo shot in the second to make it 8-0.
Schieber then hit another home run, his eighth of the season, in the third. His three-run shot off of Jake DeVoy stretched the lead to 11-0.
“It’s tough when you give up seven in the first inning,” Central senior Conor Philbin said. “We know we can hit. No matter what the score was, we were going to keep chipping away. We know we can, that’s the thing. We don’t think we can score. We know we can get runs against any pitcher.”
Mike Riordan’s RBI single in the fourth cut the lead to 11-1, but the Redhawks (15-9, 10-5) were still facing the possibility of the game being over due to the mercy rule if they couldn’t score in the fifth.
Philbin’s two-run triple kept the game going for Central, and the Redhawks kept adding on from there. Philbin’s RBI single in the sixth cut the lead to 11-5 and gave Central hope going into the final inning.
The first five Central hitters in the seventh reached base. DeVoy doubled and scored on Jimmy Nashert’s single to start the rally. Thanks to a hit batsman, an error and a walk, suddenly the game was 11-9 with the bases loaded, one out and No. 3 hitter Ian Lewandowski due up.
“Our hearts were beating a little faster,” Schieber said. “But we trust our defense and we trust our pitchers and we knew we could get through it.”
Schieber wound up being correct. Lewandowski hit a sharp grounder to third baseman John Peltz. He stepped on first and fired to first to complete the double play and end the game. The play was extremely close, but the Falcons got the call, and the win.
“They’re a good ballclub,” Philbin said. “They can hit with the best of them. It will be a good race. They took two of three from us, and we didn’t lie down. They took it from us.”
