Ben Rietz didn’t need to wait long for a second chance.
Naperville Central’s senior right-hander faced three batters Wednesday in relief of twin brother Nick Rietz. He walked two and hit one.
Redemption came Thursday morning in a text from Redhawks coach Mike Stock. Ben was getting the ball to start the Hinsdale South Regional final.
“He trusted me and I trusted myself,” Rietz said. “I was honored to get the opportunity.”
Rietz didn’t waste it. He threw four shutout innings, and Central beat Metea Valley 10-3 for its first summer regional championship since 2005.
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The Redhawks advance to Benedictine to play at 12:30 p.m. Monday in the Phil Lawler Classic quarterfinals against Fremd, the Palatine Regional winner.
“It’s a great feeling,” Rietz said. “Toward the spring we kind of fell apart. It’s great to come back and win something like this.”
Rietz’s biggest challenge Thursday came right from the start.
He hit Metea’s Payton Thorne to start the first inning and walked the next batter. Metea’s Matt Vass hit a sharp grounder to first baseman Aaron Szczepanski, who started a double play that Rietz finished by taking the throw back at first.
“That was the ballgame, getting out without damage,” Stock said. “Ben jumped the mound after that out — he could have cleared the fence he was so pumped.”
On a breezy day with the wind blowing in, Central broke through a scoreless game in the third inning.
Ryan Eiermann lined a leadoff single, Gabe Soria walked and Szczepanski reached on a bunt to load the bases. On an 0-2 pitch, Central’s Kyle Bennington was hit on the face to score Eiermann. Two more runs came in on a sacrifice fly and wild pitch.
Trailing 4-0 in the sixth, Metea closed within 4-3 on Andrew Cronin’s two-run single. But Central reliever Tyler Brinker coaxed a grounder to avoid further damage and Central erupted with a six-run seventh behind RBI doubles from Tommy Carlsen and Jack Hughes.
The Mustangs committed five errors.
“Our inexperience showed up,” Metea coach Craig Tomczak said. “We kicked the ball around a little bit and the game got away from us. But that’s part of the maturation process as a group. We did a lot of growing up this summer.”
Rietz’s opportunities this spring for Central were rare. He made just three appearances in relief, throwing two innings. Rietz and his identical twin are an interesting pair. They throw with the same velocity — Ben from the right side, Nick from the left.
They wear wristbands on their glove hands to help Stock tell them apart.
Stock didn’t hesitate giving Ben Rietz the call, even after Wednesday’s rocky relief outing.
“I can’t let one moment erase all the hard work that he’s done,” Stock said. “We tell kids clear bad results your next time out, and as coaches we do the same thing. Boy, Ben did a great job out there.”
Rietz didn’t record a strikeout over four innings, but he did keep Metea’s batters off-balance.
Brinker, who had an abbreviated one-out start Tuesday, threw the last three innings.
“When you’re throwing competitive pitches, you don’t have to throw everything over the plate and guys are going to chase,” Stock said.
Joshua Welge is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun.