Stay Connected with YourSeason
Blackhawks score first DVC win of season
Updated: May 6, 2011 10:23PM
Prior to their DuPage Valley Conference game on Friday, host West Aurora gave flowers to Naperville North players in honor of Mother’s Day.
The Huskies returned the nice gesture by committing five costly errors early in the game that led to a 5-2 Blackhawks victory — their first in league play this season.
North (8-9, 3-6) committed four errors in the first inning that led to two unearned runs and West Aurora was able to hold on.
“We didn’t come out to play the way we needed to today. When you get down in an early hole, the offense can’t do the things that they need to do,” Huskies coach Jerry Kedziora said. “They took advantage of our errors and that’s what teams in our conference do. They take advantage of mistakes.”
After LaRi Mitchell got on via an error by the shortstop, Alyssa Reiners came up and hit a grounder to third. The third baseman threw the ball wide and it hit the fence.
The first baseman tried to gun down Mitchell sprinting for third after retrieving the overthrow but it was high and it bounced off the third baseman’s glove, allowing the run to score and Reiners went to third.
Christina Hunger executed a perfect squeeze bunt to score Reiners but the throw to first was wide, allowing Hunger to reach base.
“We came over the hump today, so to of speak, and we finally put a complete game together,” Blackhawks coach Sarah Nagy said. “After the first inning the momentum was on our side and that kept us going.”
West Aurora tacked on runs in the third, fifth, and sixth innings. Mitchell led off the sixth with a triple down the left-field line and Reiners followed with an RBI groundout.
Pitcher Franny Evischi had one of her best outings of the season for West Aurora (5-16, 1-8). Evischi went the distance, giving up two runs on eight hits while striking out two. She also ended North shortstop Sammy Marshall’s 48-game hitting streak. Marshall went 0-for-4 with two flyouts and two groundouts.
“This season we have had so many close games and it feels good to finally finish one off with a win,” Evischi said. “We played them before and we lost pretty bad so winning today gives us a lot of confidence.”
On April 20, the Huskies downed the Blackhawks 6-0 in Naperville.
North finally got on the board in the sixth thanks to a single by Tara Degl’Innocenti and two wild pitches. They added their final run in the seventh as Caitlyn Warren hit a solo blast over the left-center field fence.
Warren went 3-for-3 on the day with the home run and two singles.
Both teams wore special pink shirts as the game marked the first annual DuPage Valley Conference Women’s Awareness game. Teams across the DVC will support a local charity agency this month by donating their time. All the teams in the DVC will be wearing the special jerseys for at least one game.
© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Cell Phone Alerts
Comments Click here to view or make a comment