Griffin’s double holds up for Naperville Central

Updated: May 30, 2011 9:18PM

The Naperville Central softball team loves playing — and winning — on West Aurora’s field.

In addition to the success the Redhawks have had in DuPage Valley Conference play in the regular season, they have won three of seven total regional titles on the Blackhawks’ turf. Naperville Central won its third regional title in four years after defeating Lyons Township, 3-1, Saturday in the West Aurora Class 4A Regional finals.

“It feels good, especially because we didn’t get one last year,” Naperville Central pitcher Alyssa Wunderlich said. “It feels like we are getting back to where we should be, so it’s a big accomplishment.”

With the win, the No. 3-seeded Redhawks (24-10) will take on No. 2-seed Downers Grove South at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the Oswego East sectional semifinal. The winner will play either No. 5 Benet (27-10) or No. 8 Naperville North (18-12). That game will take place at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Redwings won the Benet Regional title after beating No. 4 Plainfield Central, 7-2. The Huskies upset No. 1 seed Downers Grove North, 5-2, for the Plainfield East Regional title. Downers Grove South won its own regional championship after topping No. 7 Neuqua Valley, 11-7.

“We have pretty good pitching and pretty good defense against teams who have pretty good hitting, so we’ll see,” Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. “That’s not to say that we don’t hit or they don’t pitch, but we are going to play the way we’ve been playing.”

Naperville Central scored twice in the bottom of the first. Nicole Kappelman led the game off with a walk, moved to second on Juliet Tassi’s sacrifice bunt and advanced to third when Kelsey Gonzalez reached base on a Lyons error. Both scored on Meghan Griffin’s two-RBI double.

“I just wanted to make contact in some way to get a run in,” Griffin said.

“That was huge,” Nussbaum said about Griffin, who added a huge RBI double in the regional semifinal game against West Aurora.

Tassi scored Naperville Central’s third run when she hit a double and was pushed to third on Gonzalez’ fielder’s choice. As Gonzalez attempted to steal second, Tassi headed home and Lyons overthrew the ball and Tassi was safe.

“For us, to get that run was big,” Nussbaum said.

Wunderlich allowed no hits in the first four innings and ended up giving up three hits, just like she did against West Aurora. The SIU-bound senior finished with 12 strikeouts, including six consecutive in the first three innings. She posted two more in the crucial seventh inning, but also gave up two of her total three walks and allowed two of Lyons’ three total hits.

“I thought she was dominant through six,” Nussbaum said of Wunderlich.

“(Wunderlich is) going to do well next year (at SIU),” Lyons coach Dawn Schabacker added. “I was very impressed with her. She was able to vary speeds, and the hits we did get off her, we had to work tooth and nail for. She’s a very, very, very good pitcher and she has a good support group behind her.”

The Lions (17-16) led the top of the seventh inning off with an Alyssa Koziol walk. She moved to second on Alyssa Smith’s single and Karen Caithamer’s walk loaded the bases with no outs. Skye Riddle, who broke up Wunderlich’s no-hit bid with a double in the fifth, hit an RBI single that allowed Koziol to score. Wunderlich, however, struck the next two batters out, and the game ended on a groundout.

“I just took it one pitch at a time,” Wunderlich said.

“(Naperville Central) played hard today, and we tried to match it,” Schabacker added. “We had a couple of errors in that first inning, and that came back to haunt us. Overall, it was a well-played game by both teams. We had to take some chances, they took some chances, and that’s what happens when you get to that level.”

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