As of late, Naperville North’s offensive motto has been pretty simple.
Get Alex Garon to the plate.
Shaken somewhat by Marmion engineering a three-run top of the seventh to take the lead for the first time and put Naperville North three outs away from elimination, Garon came up in the nick of time.
Garon’s two-run, walk-off homer to left with one out in the bottom of the seventh off Marmion starter Jake Esp concluded a wild inning of baseball as 15th-seeded Naperville North rallied for a 6-5 victory over 18th-seeded Marmion on Monday as part of the Class 4A Marmion Regional.
Garon’s second homer in as many games helped pick up both Mark Khoury and Luke Brennan on the mound.
“Obviously, we were in a tough spot there with (Marmion) kind of rallying there, us coming back,” Garon said. “Sam (LaScala), great job getting on base. I’ve been seeing the ball well here recently. Just looking for the fastball up and in, got it and we’re not quite ready for the season to end. So just wanted to put something up there.”
The Huskies (17-15) advance to get a second meeting with second-seeded Waubonsie Valley (27-5) this year on Wednesday.
Back on April 6, the Warriors beat the Huskies, 7-3, behind 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball from junior Jacob Hennessy.
An out away from getting a complete game, Khoury responded from a leadoff walk to start the top of the seventh by getting two strikeouts.
But singles from Jon Young and Matt Henkel drove him from the game after 6 2/3 innings and Brennan came in and proceeded to hit Edgar Sanchez and give up a two-run single to Will Matthews.
Garon’s heroics in the seventh improved Brennan to a team-best 7-1 on the season for Naperville North.
Khoury had only one 1-2-3 inning but he used his defense behind him as he saw catcher Christian Barczi throw a runner out at second to end the first and got a double play to end the fifth.
Khoury struck out five while scattering nine hits for the Huskies as he pitched into the seventh inning for the fourth time in his last six starts.
“Mark Khoury pitched awesome again,” Naperville North coach Carl Hunckler said. “And that’s probably about the fifth time I’ve said to everybody this year. (Khoury) kept us in the game.”
Naperville North staked Khoury to a 4-0 lead as Khoury and Barczi had a pair of two-out doubles to get a run across in the first and got four hits off Cadets’ starter Jake Esp during a three-run third.
As part of his two hits and three RBIs, Barczi struck the biggest blow against Esp during the third, courtesy of a two-run single to right—which was followed by a Sam Siebers’ RBI groundout.
“There were two strikes, I believe, and I just wanted to get something and hit it hard,” Barczi said. “I was expecting an off-speed because (Esp) threw me the fastball the pitch before. But I just wanted to take it to the opposite field and (Esp) got that curveball up and I took it to right field and that was it.”
