Baseball: Rhoades Shuts Down Huskies

WHEATON – It’s hard enough for hitters to stay in a rhythm with the sporadic nature of the weather the past two weeks.

Add in the Jeremy Rhoades factor, and Naperville North’s baseball team had its hands full Monday against Wheaton Warrenville South in DuPage Valley Conference play.

Rhoades was dominant, striking out seven in six innings, as the Tigers hung a 7-3 loss on Naperville North. The Huskies didn’t get their first hit until Tyler Gehr’s infield single with one out in the fourth inning.

“Most of the stuff he was throwing was moving and he was painting the corners pretty well,” said North junior Marques Winick, who drove in a run with a double in the sixth.

“It was tough to hit when everything he was throwing was moving. He mixed up his speeds. We just had to adjust, and I don’t think we adjusted as well as we could have.”

Wheaton Warrenville South (8-8 overall, 4-3 DVC) wasted little time getting going offensively off of North pitcher Kevin Garon. Matt Sturgeon and Zach Jarosz led off the bottom of the first with singles and scored to give the Tigers a quick 2-1 lead.

North (5-9, 2-5) did get on the board in the top of the first when Mariano Long’s ground out plated courtesy runner Jack Braakman, but WWS kept the pressure on. With Rhoades dealing on the mound, the Tigers added two runs in the second and three in the fifth to open a 7-1 advantage.

“We were overmatched, no doubt about it,” Huskies coach Carl Hunckler said. “We typically don’t have that many strikeouts. The credit goes to (Rhoades); we were definitely overmatched. He’s their lead man.

"We knew it was going to be tough coming in. they pitched better than us. They hit better than us. They deserved to win.”

Long singled in Nick Solak in the seventh, but North left a pair on base against Wheaton South reliever Jack Machalak to end the game.

The weather was shaky once again Monday, but the game went on. Like most other teams, the Huskies are five games down due to weather. Thanks to rescheduled games, the issue of having enough pitching to get through the next few weeks has become a real dilemma for Hunckler.

“This has been terrible,” Hunckler said. “I’d have to go back to 1991 or 1992 to find a worse year. Right now we’re scheduled to play every day this week. You can’t do that because nobody’s got arms for that.”

As for the players, the instability of the forecast has made things a challenge.

“I think just not being able to get the same reps is taking its toll,” Winick said. “You just have to prepare like you have a game every day.”

The two teams will play game two of the three-game series at North on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.