Allegretti, Oswego coast past Naperville Central

Photos: Oswego vs. Naperville Central

Updated: March 30, 2011 3:04PM

Oswego senior Scott Allegretti commanded his whole arsenal here on a chilly Tuesday afternoon, and the Panthers sank visiting Naperville Central 9-1 in a nonconference matchup.

Locating his fastball and mixing in his curveball and change-up, the left-hander kept the Redhawks off balance. He fanned five, surrendered three hits and walked two in five innings to earn the win.

"Everything was working; all three pitches," Allegretti said. "It was great. A good day."

After retiring the first two batters of the game, Allegretti allowed back-to-back singles to Ian Lewandowski and Conor Philbin. Parker Meek helped end the threat when he scooped a one-hop throw out of the dirt.

The Panthers (2-1) scored three runs in the bottom in the inning, aided by a pair of Redhawk errors. John Hugunin singled through the left side and Kevin Tidaback reached on a grounder that was misplayed. Allegretti took a walk to load the bases before Meek was called out on the infield-fly rule.

A base on balls to Tyler Schwerin (2 RBI) forced in the first run, and a ground ball off the bat of Tim Wodzisz skipped off a Redhawk, allowing two more runs to cross the plate. That was all the offense Allegretti needed.

"They had a sophomore on the mound so that was huge," Allegretti said. "It gave us an advantage and worked against his inexperience. It helped us a lot."

Oswego extended the lead to 6-0 with three runs in the third inning. Allegretti (2-for-3, 3 runs) led off with a double to the right field corner and Meek stroked a two-bagger to left field plating courtesy runner Eddie Spies. Nick Gerber knocked in Meek with a single to left and eventually scored on a passed ball.

Naperville Central scored in the fourth as Philbin smacked a double to left-center, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout by Jimmy Nashert, who took the loss.

The Redhawks (1-1) threatened again in the fifth after a leadoff error and a walk, but Allegretti induced a flyout and whiffed the next two batters to end his outing. Mark Gillafo earned the save with two scoreless innings.

"Today (Allegretti) was even better than expected against a real quality opponent," said Oswego coach Chris Neitzel. "The thing that's really good about Scott at the high school level is that he can locate three pitches.

"He's got a real good curve, a great change-up and he's got just enough zip," Neitzel added. "With those other two pitches his fastball looks that much faster."

The Panthers collected eight hits and committed one error while the Redhawks made five errors.

"I was disappointed we didn't make a play at the end of the ball game, but we've got to give ourselves a chance and we didn't do that," said Naperville Central coach Bill Seiple. "We'll get better and Jimmy is going to be able to pitch for us. But you can't go 3-and-1 on every hitter."

© 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.