The Naperville North baseball team didn’t need to do much scouting for its regional semifinal against Naperville Central on Thursday.
After seeing the Redhawks three times last week, including an 8-6 loss that denied the Huskies a chance to capture the DuPage Valley Conference title outright, North gained its revenge with a 9-2 victory on its home field.
The Huskies’ Ben Kelsey was 4-for-5 with four RBIs, and winning pitcher Jake Naumann (10-2) fell one out short of a complete game. The starter walked the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning in an otherwise efficient performance.
The Huskies’ third victory in four tries against Central (20-12) earned them a regional finals berth Saturday against another Naperville neighbor: Defending state champion Neuqua Valley, the sectional’s top seed.
The Huskies (23-10) broke through early against Central’s ace, junior Pat Kaminska, who had thrown three innings of scoreless relief in the Redhawks’ victory last Friday. Kelsey’s two-run single was the key blow in a four-run second inning. He added an RBI double in a three-run third and an RBI single in a two-run fifth.
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“Baseball is a streaky game, but I’m hot right now; that’s all there is to it,” said Kelsey, who drove in the game-winning run in a 9-8, come-from-behind win against the Redhawks last Thursday. “The baseball looks pretty big out there.”
The early runs were more than enough for Naumann, who scattered six hits over 6 2/3 innings, striking out three and not allowing a walk until he ran into trouble in the seventh inning.
The 10th-seeded Huskies technically entered the game as underdogs against the eighth-seeded Redhawks, as the IHSA determined the tournament seedings in late April.
The Huskies again will play as the “road team” on their home field Saturday to determine the champion of the Naperville North regional.