Baseball: Naperville North’s Brock Borgeson baffles West Aurora

Updated: May 4, 2012 8:59PM

With the way his team has been hitting the past three weeks, Naperville North senior pitcher Brock Borgeson knows that he doesn’t have to be perfect on the mound.

But Borgeson went out there and nearly pulled the trick anyway in Friday’s 7-0 DuPage Valley Conference win over West Aurora, completing a three-game sweep of the Blackhawks.

Borgeson struck out seven and walked one, allowing only one hit, over 6 1/3 sparkling innings to improve to 2-2 on the season.

“He was awesome,” Naperville North coach Carl Hunckler said. “It was great to see. We get so excited because we love the kid. He works so hard. It’s just nice. He’s just a kid that’s always loved baseball. He was always one of the smaller kids and here he is his senior year in the starting rotation.”

Borgeson said that West Aurora’s mound is his favorite to throw off of in the DVC, and it showed Friday. His fastball was strong, his splitter was strong and his ability to drop down and throw submarine style at times kept the Blackhawks (7-18 ,3-10) off-balance all day.

“I think (the mound) adds a couple of miles per hour on my pitches,” Borgeson said. “Perfect weather helped me get better grips on my pitches today. My splitter was inconsistent at times, but it got a couple of strikeouts.”

The Huskies (15-11, 9-4) had yet another strong day with the bats, pounding out 14 hits, 12 of which were singles. The top of the order did most of the damage. The top four hitters, Marques Winick, Nick Solak, Mariano Long and Alex Moss went a combined 9-for-16 with four runs scored. Pat Mollo added a two-run single in the third and Kevin Garon scored on a daring straight steal of home plate in the sixth.

“It’s been a fun time,” Hunckler said. “The amount of hits that we get with two outs and two strikes, that’s the key. We have a lot of confidence. You can’t take that away from them.”

Across the diamond, however, West Aurora is headed in the other direction. It has been a difficult few weeks for the Blackhawks, and it gets no easier Saturday morning against DVC power Wheaton North. They will pick up Tuesday’s postponement in the bottom of the third inning and then play another full game after that.

“We’re having a rough go of it,” West Aurora coach John Reeves said. “This week has not been kind to us. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? It’s been a rough week.”

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