Long’s efforts enough for Huskies

Updated: April 29, 2011 8:42PM

Throughout most of the season’s first 14 games, nothing much has gone right for Naperville North.

However, that all seems to change when junior Mariano Long takes the hill.

Displaying the dominance one comes to expect from a staff ace, Long fired a complete-game at Wheaton Warrenville South in a 9-2 Huskies’ victory Friday.

In tossing his second straight complete game and third on the year, he scattered six hits and struck out 10, including fanning six of the final seven to step into the batters’ box against him.

“I came out and wasn’t feeling all there, but my teammates picked me up, put the ball in play,” said Long, who also went 3-for-5 with a RBI and scored two runs. “You hit the ball hard, good things will happen. Make the other team make plays and that’s what we did (Friday).

“Get ahead, stay ahead---that’s kind of my motto. That’s what I try to do and second and third innings, settled in. Good things happened from there on out.”

Forcing Wheaton Warrenville South to try and make plays defensively, the Huskies took advantage of several errors in scoring their most runs in a game since putting up 18 against Oswego East back on April 4.

A botched double play opened up the door for the Huskies in the fourth and they walked right through it.

After Conner Adamski and Nick Krejci began the inning with back-to-back singles off Tigers’ starter Jason Schuman, Naperville North (6-9, 3-5 DuPage Valley) proceeded to load the bases with one out before Nick Solak hit what appeared to be a tailor-made double play ball, but Tigers’ shortstop Parker Ryndak failed to touch second after receiving Zach Jarosz’s feed, allowing Adamski to score.

Marques Winick immediately followed that up with a two-run single to center to bring home both Krejci and Matt Harz, who Schuman had previously hit with a pitch, to give the Huskies a 4-2 lead, one they wouldn’t relinquish.

Tacking on five more runs over the course of the game’s last three innings, Naperville North’s offense constantly kept the pressure on Schuman, who took the loss after going five innings and striking out six, and Nick Garlick.

“We’ve been struggling quite a bit,” Naperville North coach Carl Huncker said. “The big thing (Friday) was that we put the ball in play. I’d like to say we had 25 hits, but we didn’t. We put the ball in play; they had some miscues that led to some big innings. The best defense is always great pitching, and that’s what Mariano gave us.”

Retiring the last 16 Tigers he faced, the last man to reach against Long was Wheaton Warrenville South’s Matt Sturgeon, courtesy of a two-out single in the second inning.

Prior to Sturgeon’s single, Zach Kyllonen and Kevin Bridges had produced RBI singles to give Wheaton Warrenville South a short-lived 2-1 lead.

Long (3-2) is responsible for half of Naperville North’s six victories and Friday’s start was an encore to his performance last Saturday, which saw him fan 11 in a 6-2 victory over West Aurora.

“I want to go out there and compete day-in and day-out and be the best,” he said. “And to be the best, you got to deal the best. You got to do the little things right to be the best. As a leader of the team, returning from last year, that’s what I try to do. Not only get the guys’ confidence up, but get us to play the ball I know we can play as a team with the talent that we have.”

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