Baseball: Naperville Central tops Naperville North in DuPage Valley showdown

Updated: May 9, 2012 8:11PM

With five games left to play in the DuPage Valley Conference season and with three teams within a game of the lead coming into Wednesday, every play seems to be more magnified.

When it comes to playing crosstown-rival Naperville Central, Naperville North just seems to tense up a little bit, leading the Huskies to do some uncharacteristic things.

Coming into its series with Naperville Central on a roll and already having seen its 12-game winning streak get snapped a day earlier, Naperville North made some critical mental lapses in some most inopportune times in getting handed a 6-1 loss.

Turning a pair of crucial double plays behind junior right-hander Jim Nashert, the Redhawks kept any Huskies’ uprisings to a minimum while giving their offense time to break out, which it eventually did — much like the day before.

Scoring five runs over the course of the game’s final three innings, highlighted by a two-run double from junior catcher Brian Schiemann in the fifth that gave Nashert a 3-0 cushion at the time, Naperville Central (19-10, 13-4 DuPage Valley) kept pace with Wheaton North in the DVC race, while going up two games on Naperville North in the process.

“(Huskies’ senior starter Brock Borgeson) was giving me curveballs all day and I was just looking curveball again, and I got it and got the two runs in,” Schiemann said.

After Naperville North (17-13, 11-6 DuPage Valley) finally got on the scoreboard, courtesy of a Nick Solak sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth, the Redhawks responded by putting three runs on the board in the top of the seventh.

Ian Lewandowski and Ross Murphy knocked in runs with back-to-back one-out hits and Blake Butler fired a two-out RBI double to left-center off Huskies’ sophomore reliever Mike Laurenzo to finish the Redhawks’ scoring and help highlight a 12-hit attack.

Nashert (2-1) went six innings and allowed just the one run on seven hits, fanning four, and greatly benefited from his defense.

Loading the bases with one out in the bottom of the first, Nashert got out of it after Pat Mollo flew into an 8-6 double play, as Butler made a nice catch in center before doubling off Mariano Long.

In the fourth, the Redhawks caught Alex Moss, who led off the inning with a single, straying off second after being sacrificed there. Two innings later, Moss stranded two runners by ending the sixth by grounding into a double play.

“We practice fundamental baseball all offseason and to take advantage of mistakes like that (is huge),” Nashert said. “Unfortunately for them, it came and we took advantage of it. It really made the difference in the game.”

Borgeson, coming off firing off 6 1/3 scoreless innings last Friday against West Aurora, went 6 1/3 innings Wednesday against the Redhawks.

The right-handed Borgeson (2-3) allowed four runs on nine hits, marking a sharp contrast from his start against the Blackhawks.

“I got ahead in a couple counts on some of the batters that (eventually got key hits) and I didn’t put them away,” he said. “My strikeout pitch wasn’t breaking and they did a good job staying back on pitches that I might have thrown off-speed when I was ahead in the count. That’s a credit to them.”

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