Who says crosstown rivals can’t help out one another?
Naperville Central certainly won’t take issue with the favor Naperville North lent it on Saturday.
Behind a third straight solid outing from senior Kyle Cobb and a 12-hit attack, Naperville North overwhelmed Waubonsie Valley with an 11-4 DuPage Valley Conference victory.
Salvaging the third game of their series with the Warriors, the Huskies ensured the Redhawks will enter the final week of DVC play tied with the Warriors for first despite losing five of six games.
The Huskies (13-13, 11-10) afforded their crosstown foes that luxury thanks to the work from Cobb, who beat them on Monday to complete a three-game sweep.
Cobb (2-1) went 5 1/3 innings and did an admirable job keeping a potent Warriors’ offense at bay for the most part.
Staked to a two-run lead before he even took to the mound, he gave up four runs – all earned – while scattering eight hits and striking out four.
“It’s always huge to pitch with a lead,” Cobb said. “It helps out so much. Hats off to (the Warriors) – they hit the snot out of the ball all three games, even (Saturday). Eventhough they weren’t all cranked to the fence, they were hard hit balls and it really helps out that our hitters hit the ball well, too.
“The umpire wasn’t really calling anything high, so I had to work around that – put the ball down lower. I did give up a couple walks, which aren’t helpful. But I tried to bounce back and do what I do best and just throw the ball and block out all of the distractions.”
Four Huskies recorded at least two hits off Warriors’ starter Jacob Hennessy with Paul Dobravec and Christian Barczi leading the way with three hits apiece.
Brennan Simek joined Dobravec and Barczi as Huskies who each knocked in three runs as they kept the pressure on Waubonsie Valley (20-9, 14-7) all afternoon.
Simek’s two-run double in the fifth sparked a three-run inning as Naperville North turned a 3-2 lead into a 6-2 lead.
A half-inning after a sac fly from Johnny Johnson and a RBI single from Nick Price got the Warriors within two runs at 6-4, the Huskies had an answer.
Dobravec’s two-run single to the opposite field and a two-run homer to straightaway center from Barczi helped drive Hennessy from the game as part of a five-run inning.
“That’s big, especially on a day like this with the wind blowing out,” Barczi said. “You just know you want to get as many runs as possible because anything can happen. So early on, getting those two runs was big. … Getting the runs is good because it helps the pitcher out. It takes a little pressure off of (Cobb). But something we’ve been working on is just getting the runs and then continuing to get runs.”
In 5 2/3 innings, Hennessy (3-3) was charged with all 11 runs – with just five of those being earned – as the Warriors’ defense didn’t help him at times by committing two errors.
After the jobs Jason Neville and Alex Schram did in the first two games, maybe the Huskies were due to break out the bats.
“They’re a tough out,” Waubonsie Valley coach Bryan Acevedo said of Naperville North’s offense. “I’ll tell you – one through nine – they battle in at-bats and they take probably some of the better approaches, one through nine, of any team we’ve seen this year. It kind of showed. We didn’t help ourselves by making a couple mistakes and they made those magnified.”
But as Waubonsie Valley has made up four games in the DVC standings in the last three weeks to find itself in a tie with Naperville Central, it has done so with a determined resolve.
The loss on Saturday aside, that mindset figures to take hold with a conference title on the line and three games with Wheaton North next on the docket.
“We knew this conference was going to be a dogfight and we just kind of put our head down and kept playing good baseball,” Acevedo said. “We’re in a good position right now. It’s going to be a tough series against a good Wheaton North team and we’re just trying to take care of what we can take care of. And that’s going out and trying to win some baseball games next week.”
