Baseball: Naperville North falls to Wheaton North
Updated: April 10, 2012 9:47PM
Wheaton North second baseman Kevin Fahy broke out of his early season hitting slump just in time for the start of the Falcons’ DuPage Valley Conference slate.
The senior went 4-for-4 with two RBI as the Falcons defeated host Naperville North 6-1 on Tuesday, a day after he went 3-for-3 in a Falcons’ victory.
Fahy says working with Wheaton North (8-5, 2-0) hitting coach Josh Coan helped turn around his season at the plate.
“Before yesterday, I was in a big time slump. I’ve been working a lot with our hitting coach on mechanics,” said Fahy. “I just wanted to get that first hit to fall, get some confidence after that and work from there.”
Falcons pitcher Lake Bachar turned in a complete game, giving up one run and seven hits while striking out seven and walking none. Bachar also recorded two hits at the plate, including an RBI single in the seventh inning.
“He (Bachar) made a lot of big pitches, and we played really good defense behind him on a windy day where it wasn’t easy to catch the ball,” said Wheaton North coach Dan Schoessling. “I thought we did a good job of not giving them chances.”
Bachar stepped up his game with runners on base, stranding seven Huskies. The Huskies had runners on first and third with one out in the second inning before Bachar struck out Kevin Garon and Marques Winick to get out of trouble.
“I was just thinking about throwing strikes and getting the hitter. I wasn’t thinking about the runners,” said Bachar. “I felt pretty good all day, the goal was just to attack the hitters and get ahead of them.”
The Falcons took a 1-0 lead in the second inning after River Williams scored on a sacrifice bunt by Ed Norris.
The Huskies answered quickly, as Pat Mollo’s RBI single in the bottom half of the inning tied the score at 1-1.
After the Falcons took a 2-1 lead in the third inning on an RBI groundout by Williams, Fahy extended the Wheaton North lead to 4-1 with a two-run single in the fourth inning.
The Falcons got two insurance runs in the seventh inning on RBI singles by Ryan Jordan and Bachar.
Naperville North center fielder Mariano Long went 2-for-3 with a double, triple and deep fly out to center field.
Despite the Huskies’ inconsistent start to the season, Naperville North (4-8, 0-2) coach Mark Lindo believes the team is on the verge of breaking out.
“I think we’re very close, I think we’re on the cusp. Our approach is good, and if our approach is positive like it was today, good things will happen to us,” said Lindo. “I think we’re close to being a competitive baseball team and our guys know that.”
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