As Naperville Central struggled somewhat down the stretch of the regular season, Liam Heath’s transition from ace bullpen arm to starter offered a safety blanket.
Two starts and two complete games from Heath helped the program work through a tough stretch and still claim a piece of the DVC title.
In its postseason opener against 19th-seeded Romeoville on Wednesday, Naperville Central saw Heath continue to hone his craft, with a welcoming assist from Tyler Brinker.
Followed by 6 1/3 innings of solid work from Heath, Brinker picked up the final two outs as third-seeded Naperville Central survived with a 4-3 victory in a Class 4A Bolingbrook Regional Semifinal.
While Heath struck out 12, the strikeout Brinker got of Kyle Massaro – the first batter he faced in the seventh – was undoubtedly the biggest strikeout recorded all day.
Inheriting the exact situation – Massaro with two runners on – that proceeded the Spartans’ two-run third after a two-run Massaro double, Brinker wasn’t fazed.
“I always get really excited when I’m going in relief,” Brinker said. “So I was really pumped up and I was very proud of the job that Liam did. I knew that there was no way they were going to win that game. I had to win it for Liam, so I was just finishing up the job for him.”
A strikeout of Massaro and a comebacker off the bat of Noah Smith made a winner of Heath while sending Naperville Central (24-10) to the brink of a fifth regional title since 2009.
Two outs shy of a third straight complete game, Heath threw four 1-2-3 innings while fanning at least two batters in four innings, as well.
Aside from the double to Massaro in the third and a game-tying double to Matt Bottcher in the sixth, Heath (7-0) was as sharp as he’s been in his last appearances.
“I felt good, in terms of my arm workouts this whole week and I felt good coming in,” Heath said. “My stuff seemed to be working well and it was working with Coach (Mike) Ulreich in the pen this week. Working well and it was fun. That third inning was a little stressful, but otherwise it was fun.”
After Bottcher tied the game at 3-3 with the double in the top of the sixth, Tyler Horvath recorded the first two outs in the bottom before hitting Beau Buchanan.
A second stolen base from Buchanan and a single from Conor Joyce followed as the Redhawks survived to play either sixth-seeded Neuqua Valley or 11th-seeded Bolingbrook on Saturday.
“He did a great job all day,” Joyce said of Horvath, whose 0-2 offering he took into right field. “He was keeping the ball out upper half of the plate all day, so I was looking to take something the other way. I got down 0-2 and then I realized Beau got into scoring position.
“You can’t strike out with a guy in scoring position. So I just shorten upped and tried to get the barrel on the ball and try to take it the other way.”
Connor Gurnik getting hit and Buchanan drawing a bases-loaded walk helped highlight a two-run bottom of the second as the Redhawks took a 2-0 lead.
Jon Barker would follow up with a RBI single one inning later to drive home their third run of the game as Horvath scattered six hits to go with the four runs.
Fully mindful of what time of year it is, Redhawks’ coach Mike Stock will take it and move on to play another day.
“Conor Joyce came through with the big hit,” Stock said. “We did enough to win. We needed a couple hits early to put an ugly number up. We never got it and Conor Joyce bailed us out of that situation. So, again, a senior coming through big there.”
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