North outlasts elements, Bolingbrook

When the Class 4A baseball playoffs begin today, effort like that of Naperville North's Charlie White last week will certainly be on display. The Huskies don't play until Wednesday, but Waubonsie Valley will be on hand today at home starting at 10 a.m. Jonathan Miano / Staff photographer

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Last season the Naperville North baseball team began its season dodging snow flakes in the outfield.

This season in the second game of the Huskies' 2009 campaign, they faced not only Bolingbrook but howling winds and piercing rain.

Regardless of what Mother Nature throws at North early in the season, the results remain the same.

North picked up its first win of the season by beating Bolingbrook 8-3 Tuesday afternoon in Naperville.

Down 2-1 in the fourth inning, No. 9 hitter Danny Sagan fought off a fastball from Bolingbrook pitcher Brian Judge (0-1) and smacked a double in the right-center field gap, scoring two runs. The clutch hit gave the Huskies a lead they never relinquished.

"It is always key for me to have a solid No. 9 hitter, and Danny has really given us the oomph and will probably hit .370 to .400 this season. He can easily be our No. 2 guy," North coach Carl Hunckler said. "He's a little, but strong kid, and in two games for us, he has four or five hits."

After the Huskies (1-0-1) tacked on two more runs in the fifth, pinch hitter Nick Giannini utilized the wind that was blowing towards left field to his advantage and ripped a three-run shot right by the scoreboard.

"I swung early at the first pitches so I moved up in the box, choked up and finally got a fastball that I liked and hit it," Giannini said. "Baseball is a game of adjustments and hitting the pitches that you like."

At times battling a slippery ball, Wes Torrez won his first start of the season going 5 2/3 innings. He gave up three runs (two earned) on just two hits with six strikeouts and three walks. The dark spot on the score sheet for Torrez were his errors -- he committed four of North's five miscues. Despite the amount of errors, Bolingbrook was unable to capitalize and didn't score any runs off of his mistakes.

"Wes pitched well for us when he was in the game and for two straight days I think as a team we hit the ball hard," Hunckler said. "We have to cut down on the mental mistakes. We had more opportunities, especially with two outs and we couldn't get runs. We also had problems closing them (Bolingbrook) out tonight."

Down 8-3 in the seventh inning, Bolingbrook had the bases loaded with two outs after three consecutive walks. However North relief pitcher Charlie White closed the door by striking out Andrew Flynn with a change-up.