Naperville North salvages third game against Central

Updated: May 3, 2011 10:23AM

Despite only being a junior, Naperville North’s Mariano Long understands that he’s looked upon as a team leader because of the Huskies’ youth.

Fresh off collecting three hits and striking out 10 in a complete-game victory over Wheaton Warrenville South on Friday, Long’s message to his younger teammates about the upcoming three-game series with crosstown rival Naperville Central was very concise.

“It’s gonna be about business and business only,” he said Friday.

After a lopsided doubleheader sweep at the hands of the rival Redhawks less than 24 hours after its impressive performance in Wheaton, Naperville North knew a victory Monday to salvage the three-game set was imperative as it tries to get a wayward season on course.

Behind a 12-hit attack and back-to-back four-run innings, Naperville North came away with an 11-6 triumph over the defending Class 4A state champions at North Central College’s Zimmerman Stadium.

With the memory of blowing a 5-0 lead in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader still in the back of their minds, the Huskies erupted for eight runs in the third and fourth innings to break a 1-1 game wide open.

Long went 2-for-2 with an RBI and scored three times to help lead the Huskies’ offensive attack, which was also aided by three-RBI afternoons from both Alex Moss and Jon Green.

“It was a good team victory,” Long said. “First time this year (that) we came out (and) smacked the ball around a little bit as a team. We had a lot of two-out hits, two-strike hits, and that was the key to the game.”

Nine of those runs and 11 of the 12 hits came off Redhawks’ sophomore left-hander Jeff Schank, who saw his record drop to 1-2 after failing to get out of the fourth inning.

“Give them credit. They swung the bat. We didn’t make enough plays or enough pitches,” Naperville Central coach Bill Seiple said. “I thought when it was early, when it was 1-1, we had some opportunities. We had a man on second with nobody out (in the third) and didn’t do anything with it.”

Knowing Naperville Central’s capability at the plate, the eight-run cushion the Huskies gave starter Dave Considine couldn’t necessarily be considered safe.

Sure enough, the Redhawks (13-7, 8-3 DuPage Valley) responded with a five-run fifth to cut their deficit to 9-6 and had Ross Murphy, who had doubled in each of his two previous at-bats and whose three-run homer helped break Game 1 on Saturday wide open, at the plate with runners on second and third with two outs. But the Huskies’ third pitcher in the inning, reliever Brock Borgeson, got Murphy to fly out to left, ending the threat.

“For us to be winning 9-6 versus it being a 9-8 game because Murphy has just killed us and he smoked that ball,” said Naperville North coach Carl Hunckler, whose team came right back with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to help reclaim momentum. “He smoked every ball against us and he has been the toughest out in their lineup for us. That made all the difference in the world — 9-6.”

Making his second start of the season and first since March 21, Considine (1-1) earned the victory for the Huskies (7-11, 4-7 DuPage Valley) despite being tagged for six runs on nine hits in 4-2/3 innings of work.

© 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.