Naperville Central isn’t the flashiest group you’ll find.
And – considering the roll it’s been on as of late – that’s perfectly fine.
A trio of pitchers helped lead Naperville Central to a ninth straight victory as it pieced together a 1-0 shutout of Wheaton Warrenville South on Friday.
A first-inning RBI groundout from Noah Cinzio was all the Redhawks (18-4, 12-2) would need as they now stand a victory away from tying their 2015 win total of 19.
Offensively, all the Redhawks could manage against both Caleb Larson – who had nine strikeouts – and Jared Smaga were two hits – singles from Beau Buchanan and Jack Hughes.
Buchanan’s first-inning single followed up a leadoff walk from Connor Gurnik, who proceeded to steal third before coming home on Cinzio’s grounder to short.
Ryan Eiermann, Tyler Brinker and Liam Heath made the Cinzio RBI groundout stand up as they combined to limit the Tigers to four hits while striking out seven.
“We’re very fortunate to have a couple good arms here,” said Heath, who earned the save after stranding a pair of runners in the bottom of the seventh. “We have some hot and cold innings hitting sometimes and fortunately enough usually Ryan or Zac (Bianucci) or Mike (Mlotek) or Tyler – they’re all able to help us out.
“Really cover for the hitting if it’s not on. Hitting’s going to be off and on in baseball. That’s how it goes, so you’re going to have pitchers who have been consistent throughout the year and I think we’ve had that and I think that’s been huge for us.”
In his three innings, Eiermann (6-0) allowed the first two runners to reach in two of them, but the TCU-bound lefty battled despite not having his best stuff.
Brinker followed Eiermann to the hill in and put forth the same line – one hit and three strikeouts in three innings – before giving way to Heath’s scoreless seventh.
“That could be the highlight of (Friday),” Naperville Central coach Mike Stock said of his team’s effort on the mound. “We’re going to make them earn the runs and, right now, I don’t think any of the three were sharp. I think that all three battled, but we didn’t give it away.
“(Larson) really battled and our kids looked like they … we had a couple days off since our last game. I almost called it ‘getaway day.’ We just lacked the focus that we need to have in a situation to play well. But our pitching was able to do it and we didn’t make any errors.”
Of the eight men it left on base, Wheaton Warrenville South saw three different innings conclude with two runners stranded.
In addition to placing their first two runners on against Eiermann in the first and third, the Tigers greeted Heath with a pair of one-out singles in the seventh.
But Heath bore down by striking out Joe Johnson and inducing Nick Howland to ground out into a fielder’s choice to Gurnik at short to preserve a second straight shutout.
“It’s tough always coming into the seventh inning there,” Heath said. “They got a few balls that found some holes, obviously. None of them were real hard hit, so I was feeling pretty good out there still. It’s just a matter of making pitches at the right time. I was fortunate enough to do that.”
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