Naperville Central senior pitcher Ryan Gervase is no stranger to high-pressure situations, and he’s also accustomed to playing on teams that make deep postseason runs.
Gervase, a Hope College soccer commit, was a defender for Naperville Central’s boys soccer team that reached three sectional finals and a supersectional during his three varsity seasons.
“It’s definitely a big part to be a part of a huge playoff run, like we’ve done with soccer a couple times,” he said. “That definitely gets you ready for playoffs in general, not just soccer. It definitely gets you ready for baseball and all the stuff that comes with that.”
Gervase plays a different kind of defender on the diamond as the closer. He felt at ease when Naperville Central coach Mike Stock summoned him in the seventh inning of the Class 4A Lockport Sectional championship game on Saturday.
The second-seeded Redhawks were clinging to a two-run lead, but the fourth-seeded Trojans had the potential tying run on base with one out and the top of the lineup due to bat.
“That’s been my role all season, so I’ve been preparing for (that situation) the whole season,” Gervase said. “That’s my job, to close the game. Just had to throw strikes, deliver the pitches I needed to do.”
Gervase did his job. After the first batter reached on an error, which loaded the bases, Gervase struck out the next hitter looking and then induced a ground ball to junior second baseman Ryley Orlanes, who tossed to senior shortstop Cooper Page for the force at second.
Earning the save, Gervase secured the Redhawks’ 3-1 victory and their first sectional title since 2012.
Naperville Central (29-9) will ride a 14-game winning streak into the Normal Supersectional against Minooka (32-6) at 6 p.m. Monday.
“I don’t think it could be any more high pressure, and Ryan has come through for us all the time,” Stock said. “We call him our closer, but he’s more of our put-the-fire-out guy, which has happened at different times of the game.
“It’s not always the last inning. He has not come in on a clean inning since I can’t remember when, and today was an example of how we’ve used him. It was great to have him ready to go.”
The entire pitching staff has been ready to go lately. The Redhawks have allowed just one run in four postseason games.
That came when the Trojans (24-13) scored in the sixth off junior reliever Decker McDonald. Oliver Gibson was given credit for an RBI triple on a misplayed fly ball.
McDonald avoided further trouble by retiring the next two batters, the second on a called third strike. After striking out the leadoff man in the seventh, he gave up a walk and a single, prompting the call to Gervase.
“Humid day, you could see everyone struggling getting the grip on the curveball, so it was nice to see Ryan was throwing it for a strike,” Stock said. “I knew he was going to give us a shot. The strikeout was huge.”
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Gervase’s save put the finishing touches on another great pitching performance. Senior left-hander Max Henson, who started and got the win by allowing two hits in 4 1/3 shutout innings, knew Gervase was going to slam the door on the Trojans.
“All the confidence in the world in him,” Henson said. “He’s been doing great all season. He’s been in this role plenty of times. No one on the team had a doubt.”
Indeed, Stock was confident with the season on the line.
“We needed some swing-and-miss,” Stock said. “At that point, Decker was struggling to get anything over but his fastball. With the top of the order coming up, I didn’t think he was going to get something past all of those guys with just a fastball.
“We needed somebody to be able to throw that off-speed over the plate, and Ryan did it.”
The Redhawks, who scored two unearned runs in the second and added a third run on an RBI double by junior outfielder Jermaine Kenady in the third, have been getting it done every day for weeks. Kenady went 3-for-3.
“We are really good at winning baseball games right now,” Stock said. “We’re excited.”
So is Gervase.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “It feels great to do it for coach Stock and all the coaches, and even better to do it for the boys.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.