Baseball: Naperville Central KOs Plainfield North
BY BLAKE BAUMGARTNER For Sun-Times Media May 30, 2012 11:28PM
Updated: July 6, 2012 9:23AM
Throughout his first year at the helm of Naperville Central, Mike Stock continually has preached the concept of being aggressive and putting pressure on the opposing defense.
The Redhawks’ aggressiveness and opportunistic offense led them through two wins last week to start the Class 4A postseason. Wednesday, that same attitude carried them one step further.
Taking advantage of some ill-timed mistakes and buoyed by a complete game from Ian Lewandowski, fifth-seeded Naperville Central upset top-seeded Plainfield North 4-3 in a Class 4A Romeoville Sectional semifinal.
Despite giving back the 2-0 lead that was given to him in the top of the second, Lewandowski (8-1) limited the Tigers to just one more run the rest of the way.
With the game knotted at 2 heading into the top of the fifth, Plainfield North pitcher Joe Cresta issued three walks and balked twice as Plainfield North (33-5) team failed to get out of the sectional for the third season in a row.
With one out in the fifth and Redhawks courtesy runner Ryan Avers on second, the Notre Dame-bound Cresta (9-1) balked him over to third, prompting Plainfield North coach John Darlington’s ejection. After walking Kevin Linne, Cresta balked Avers home to put the Redhawks in front to stay.
“(The plate umpire) had not warned me. That’s what threw me off guard so much, especially calling it twice like that back to back,” Cresta said. “You know, you’ve just got to move on from it and unfortunately, we couldn’t get over that hump right there. So it was a tough break.”
The Redhawks were held to just three hits by Cresta, who allowed three earned runs while fanning four and walking four in going the distance.
