Naperville Central threatened in the final inning of Wednesday’s crosstown game against Naperville North, but North had an answer.
That answer was pitcher Alex Hanselman, who struck out Central’s final two batters with two runners on base, preserving an 8-5 win in the DuPage Valley Conference game.
“I threw a lot of (screwballs) there,” Hanselman said. “I was trying to break them outside and get them to swing on them. Luckily, it worked out.”
The big blow of the game came in host North’s half of the sixth inning, when Rachel Martin jacked a three-run home run over the center field fence off Central ace Julie Kestas.
Martin’s first homer of the year proved to be the game-winner on a day that saw Naperville North (7-7, 1-1) post a 14-9 edge in hits over Naperville Central (7-5, 0-2).
“We came ready to go. We were up,” Martin said. “(Kestas) was one of the faster pitchers we’ve seen all year so that was an adjustment we had to make, and we adjusted well.”
Central took six walks but stranded 11 runners on base, a trend that has coach Andy Nussbaum concerned.
“We’ve had good hitting but we had a game last week where we had ten hits and only one run,” Nussbaum said. “So our hitting isn’t awful but it hasn’t been clutch.
“Maybe (Kestas) didn’t have a great day today but generally speaking we haven’t supported her as much as we need to. I don’t know what has to change but we’re a better ball club than this.”
Central led 2-0 after an inning when Lindsay Gonzalez and Abbey Place scored on a wild pitch and an error. North tied it in the second inning on a two-run double from Hanselman.
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North scored three runs in the fourth thanks to key contributions from the bottom of its batting order.
For much of the season, North’s first four or five batters have carried the offensive load but in the fourth inning the Huskies got doubles from Janelle Honaker and Kelsey Warren, their No. 7 and No. 8 hitters.
The inning also featured singles from Rachel Aiardo and Bailey Engel, and a double from Alexis Solak.
Aiardo finished with three hits for the Huskies.
“It was a real good day,” North coach Jerry Kedziora said. “The girls really hit the ball around and must have been seeing the ball well. Kestas has been doing well and for us to get eight runs off of her is an amazing accomplishment.
“Our scorebook lately has looked like a Little League scorebook, where the first four hitters have been scoring all our runs, so we’ve talked about trying to flip the order so that our top four hitters can get four at-bats like they did today.”
North led 5-4 when Martin launched her pivotal home run in the sixth and Kestas had an RBI single in the seventh before Hanselman shut the door on the Redhawks.
“At the beginning of the game it was so cold and the wind was blowing but after the second inning I felt better,” Hanselman said. “And even when they did hit the ball, my teammates made the plays. That really helps.”
Larsen is a freelance reporter for the Sun.