Two batters into its game with Wheaton Warrenville South on Monday, the tone for Naperville Central was set quickly.
Singles from Ben Rozeboom and Austin Sherman got the Redhawks off on the right foot as a two-run first helped counter a run from the Tigers.
Naperville Central scored in five of the first six innings en route to picking up a 9-6 victory over Wheaton Warrenville South to begin play in the Hinsdale South Regional of the Phil Lawler Summer Classic.
The three first-inning hits the Redhawks got off Tigers’ starter Grant Negris, highlighted by Conor Joyce’s RBI single that brought in two runs, including one after an errant throw home, started a stretch of six unanswered runs.
“It started with Ben Rozeboom right away with the leadoff single that got everyone’s confidence going up,” Joyce said. “We kind of just fed off that. Liam (Heath) pitched great on the mound, so that was another thing that we fed off of. We felt like we just kept rolling after each other.”
Rozeboom, Jack Hughes and Eric Houlihan had two hits apiece for the Redhawks while Beau Buchanan reached base three times.
Hughes, a junior catcher, knocked in two runs while showing off his arm in the first by nailing a runner at second to end
“It starts with the guys before me and they got on,” Hughes said. “They thought I was going to bunt in that situation (in the fifth), with guys on first and second. So I knew (Jack Kocinski) was going to throw me a fastball, so I just want to stay on it and take it to the right side.”
Noah Cinzio and Michael Nerger added back-to-back sacrifice flies in the bottom of the fifth as Naperville Central responded from a two-run Jack Farley single in the top of the inning.
The consecutive sacrifice flies from Cinzio and Nerger highlighted a three-run fifth inning for the Redhawks, aiding the work of Heath, Nick Rietz and Zac Bianucci on the mound.
Heath went four-plus innings for the Redhawks and Rietz went 2 1/3 innings in relief of Heath before giving way to Bianucci during a seventh-inning jam.
Bianucci fanned a pair of Tigers, including Spiro Pavlou to end the game, to put an end to a three-run inning for Wheaton Warrenville South, which scored without the benefit of a ball leaving the infield.
While Rietz ran out of gas in the seventh, he inherited a jam in the fifth following Heath’s departure and did a commendable job in allowing no more runs after Farley’s two-run single off Heath.
“Liam struggled to get the first out a couple times but settled down,” Redhawks’ coach Mike Stock said. “(Heath) ate up some innings for us, competed. Nick was good. He came in and did a real nice job in a tough situation. I was hoping to stretch him for another (inning), but then Zac was able to come in, throw some tough pitches.”
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