Wheaton North takes one in extras

Updated: May 9, 2011 9:51PM

An old adage says that outs No. 25-27 are the toughest to get in baseball.

For Naperville North on Monday, getting outs No. 31-33 weren’t any picnic, either.

Having two separate opportunities to close out Wheaton North by just getting three more outs—first in the seventh inning and then in the ninth, Naperville North let a golden opportunity slip away as Wheaton North engineered two late comebacks to pull out a 6-5 victory in nine innings.

A RBI double from Wheaton North’s Dale Trimble to right-center with one out in the bottom of the ninth off Huskies’ reliever Garrett Borg brought home Kevin Fahy with the game-winning run as Wheaton North stayed a half-game ahead of both Naperville Central and Glenbard North in the DuPage Valley Conference.

Riding the exploits of ace Mariano Long, the Huskies took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh, only to see it disappear after the Falcons tallied three runs off him in the inning to send the game into extra frames.

Wheaton North (16-7-1, 11-5 DuPage Valley) immediately loaded the bases off Long to begin the inning courtesy of singles from John Peltz, Tom Colletti and Ryan Kent before Reece Butler’s sacrifice fly to right finally got the Falcons on the board.

Jake Schieber, coming off a 3-for-4, four-RBI afternoon against Naperville Central on Friday, duplicated that feat with a two-run single off Long to tie the game in the seventh and a two-run homer off Borg (1-1) to tie the game up again at five in the ninth, two batters ahead of Trimble.

“We just didn’t make plays. We didn’t execute,” said Long, who tied his season-high by fanning 11 over the course of seven strong innings and who was shooting for his fourth straight complete game. “We had plenty of chances to win the game. We didn’t get bunts down. Coach (Carl Hunckler) has harped on us all year—you gotta execute.”

Before Trimble’s walk-off double, the young Huskies got off the mat and responded from the setback in the seventh with a pair of runs in the top of the ninth.

After Conner Adamski and Nick Krejci both got on off Wheaton North reliever Dan Brake to start the inning, sophomore second baseman Nick Solak came through with a two-out, two-run double to give the Huskies a 5-3 lead.

In some ways, Solak’s double served as a microcosm for the Huskies’ difficulty in closing out Wheaton North, even with their ace on the mound.

Naperville North (9-14, 6-10 DuPage Valley) stranded seven runners on the day, including two runners—Nick Krejci and Jack Braakman—that started the third with back-to-back singles.

Leadoff doubles from Long, Dan Considine and Alex Moss started each of the fourth, fifth and sixth, but only two of those doubles came around to score.

“We gotta finish the game, just doing our jobs,” Solak said. “Throughout the game, getting your job done is the biggest part. I know one thing: we gotta show some more passion out here. Show some passion for the game. We were in the game the whole time.”

Coming off complete-game victories in each of his last three starts against West Aurora, Wheaton Warrenville South and Glenbard East, respectively, Long weaved in and out of trouble before the fateful seventh by stranding the bases loaded by fanning pinch-hitter Micah Penn looking in the fourth and striking out Ryan Jordan looking to end the sixth, stranding two Falcon runners in the process.

“I thought Mariano did a great job. We got some key hits from Nick Solak, Krejci had a key hit first—he put us up 3-0 (in the fourth),” Hunckler said. “Those were two-out hits and you look for those type of things from the offensive leaders on your team. We’re done with learning. We just got to quit making the mistakes. We’re not getting the little things done.”

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