Above: Naperville Central senior Glenn Kozlowski delivers during Naperville Central’s 10-3 victory over Waubonsie Valley.
While sophomore left-hander Ryan Eiermann has done an incredible job in taking on the mantle of staff ace for Naperville Central, Glenn Kozlowski has quietly gone about his business on the mound.
Moments after dispatching of Plainfield Central Thursday to ensure a second meeting with Waubonsie Valley, Eiermann expressed complete “faith” that Kozlowski would “do his thing.”
Exactly two months after he first saw Waubonsie Valley, Kozlowski proved Eiermann to be a prophet as the senior right-hander once again held the Warriors at bay.
Led by Kozlowski and doing a better job in its second look at Warriors’ junior Jason Neville offensively, 10th-seeded Naperville Central surged to a 10-3 upset of second-seeded Waubonsie Valley to win the Class 4A Marmion Regional.
“Most of (my repertoire) was working, especially my slider,” Kozlowski said. “I don’t think they hit one of those and then my changeup. My changeup really helped roll up some ground balls. When you have my infield and outfield, anything could work.”
Two months after throwing five scoreless innings in a 2-0 loss to Neville and the Warriors, Kozlowski (8-2) got into the sixth for the Redhawks, giving up three runs, one earned, on nine hits in 5.2 innings.
Its first regional title since 2012 in tow, Naperville Central (19-16) advances to face third-seeded Plainfield North (29-7) on Thursday at the Class 4A Romeoville Sectional.
Courtesy of a 4-for-4 day at the plate, senior third baseman Ryan Jones was the only player for Waubonsie Valley (28-6) to record one than one hit against Kozlowski.
“(Kozlowski) was getting ahead with his curveball,” Jones said. “Props to him. His fastball was good, too. He was hitting good locations. Not much else to say. He just pitched his butt off. Props to him.”
A two-out hit from Brandon Petersen in the fifth finally got Waubonsie Valley on the board at 4-1 and it loaded the bases in the sixth and recorded two runs on a pair of balls that didn’t leave the infield.
With the lead at 6-3 after Jones’ fourth hit of the game brought in a run, Kozlowski gave way to Eiermann with two outs, the bases still loaded and Petersen representing the go-ahead run.
Two pitches later, Eiermann induced Petersen to ground into a force at third to get Naperville Central out of the inning.
“I’ve been telling you all season: people are excited about Ryan for a lot of things,” Naperville Central coach Mike Stock said of Eiermann, who’ll start against Plainfield North on Thursday. “I’m excited about Ryan Eiermann (for) the way he competes. If that was a basketball game, he wants in the middle of it and he talked to us and we thought if the chance arises, we could use him. It worked out pretty well and we were able to do that.
“We got through that part of the order and kept it a three-run ballgame at that time. It was huge for us to add after that (during a four-run seventh). I can’t say enough. Ryan did a great job coming in for Petersen.”
For the Redhawks, what a difference two months makes.
Shut down by Neville to the tune of three hits and seven strikeouts in the Warriors’ 2-0 victory in April, the Redhawks’ offense had three hits and a run in the first inning alone off him on Monday.
Connor Gurnik’s leadoff single to start the game and a pair of passed balls, along with hits from Kevin Clifford and Billy Oliver, helped get Naperville Central a run off Neville right away.
From there, the Redhawks made Neville (7-2), who threw 89 pitches in four innings, work and work.
“I thought Connor Gurnik did a great job of just getting us going right away,” said Kevin Clifford, who had two hits and two RBIs. “Our dugout was into it. Glenn set the tone later in the game and we just build off each other. We had a lot of momentum going in and we didn’t stop.”
Its hopes of a second regional title after coming away with a pair of Upstate Eight Valley titles the last two years dashed, Waubonsie Valley recorded the second-most victories for the program with 28.
For first-year coach Bryan Acevedo, that’s something he and his team can be awfully proud of as it heads into 2016.
“Just couldn’t be prouder of a group of kids,” Acevedo said. “I’ve kind of been saying it all year. I’ve had the pleasure of coaching the seniors for three out of their four years. Really just proud of what they’ve done and the way they’re kind of moving the program.”
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