Buoyed by erasing a five-run deficit on Monday at Lake Park, Naperville North got its DuPage Valley Conference slate off to a good note with a two-run victory.
About 24 hours later, Naperville North was staring at the distinct possibility of seeing it happen to them.
With Matt Pillatsch and Chris LaScala already gone from the mound as the Lancers had already tallied three runs in the seventh, Luke Brennan nailed down a 6-4 Naperville North victory on Tuesday.
Brennan stranded the bases loaded by getting Joe Kennedy to pop out to third to make a winner out of Pillatsch and make the most out of Sam LaScala’s day at the plate.
Sam LaScala went 3-for-3 with three RBIs while scoring three times.
Already having stolen a base and scored a run off an error, his two-run homer in the sixth off Lake Park junior Jim McDonald appeared to be rather innocent as it gave the Huskies a 6-1 lead.
But considering the three-run uprising Lake Park put forth against three different pitchers in the seventh, it proved to be the difference in the Huskies’ third straight victory.
“It was a 3-2 count. Prior to that, we had (Sam) Siebers get on with a walk. He gets over on a passed ball, Christian (Robert) lays down a bunt. I’m thinking, ‘All right, I got to get (the ball to the) right side,’” Sam LaScala said. “Didn’t like the first two pitches. We came back three balls. I just got my two-strike approach that we learn here. Pitch went inside and just got a piece of it.”
Naperville North (5-6, 2-0) got 6 1/3 solid innings from Pillatsch as the left-hander rebounded from his shaky start eight days before against Waubonsie Valley.
In control because of his fastball, Pillatsch scattered nine hits and fanned three for the Huskies while showing an ability to navigate with men on base.
Pillatsch (2-2) stranded two Lancers on base in both the fifth and the sixth innings and was also the beneficiary of his teammates turning a 4-6-3 double play in the fourth.
“(Tuesday), I felt a lot better in control of my pitches,” Pillatsch said. “So there’s that. Against Waubonsie, I came out to a rocky start and I really wanted to put a lot of focus on putting up a couple zeros up in the first couple innings. Let the team, let the offense do its job.”
Naperville North was able to execute offensively by manufacturing runs against both Lake Park starter Colin Fowich and McDonald.
The first run of the game came courtesy of a Alex Garon double to lead off the game in the first and a sacrifice bunt attempt from Steve Dudas that was thrown away, allowing Garon to score.
Two innings later, Mark Khoury’s sacrifice fly in the third that gave the Huskies a 2-1 lead came after they loaded the bases against Fowich with three singles, one of which was an infield single and one that was a bunt single.
“I think we did a lot of little things that made it look like we knew what we were doing,” Naperville North coach Carl Hunckler said. “Played a little bit of small ball, got some bunts down. Took advantage of some situations.”
[shareprints gallery_id=”2398″ gallery_type=”squares” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”small” image_padding=”2″ theme=”dark” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” descriptions=”true” comments=”false” sharing=”true”]
