Naperville Central, who made it to the Regional Finals last year, face off against Metea Valley at Painfield Central in the Regional Semifinals. The Redhawks seeded 18th this year hope to make it back to the finals while the mustangs lost in the quarterfinals last year and hold the 2 seed this year.
Second Inning
Top of the second is where we begin this sage with pitcher Jared Suchevits at the dish. He serves up himself a big home run to center field to get the redhawks on the board 1-0.
Still in the top of 2 with Sam Hojnar at the plate and runners at 2 and 3. He hits a smacks a double to left field, bringing in Nathan Brinker and Kevin Change. At the end of 2, Redhawks lead 4-0.
Third Inning
Mustangs bring in Jack Cagigal to take over pitching duties and we move to the top of the third. Central already scored one in this inning and they look to add on. Kevin Chan rips a grounder to the outfield. Dino Biggers and Nathan Bricker both cross home, 7-0 redhawks.
Bottom of the third and the mustangs look to get something started but Jared Suchevits is just on his game on the mound for the hawks and ends the inning with the K Suchevits would go on to get 8 strike outs in the game.
Metea’s Patrick Straub on the bump now and he is also doing well. Bases loaded with no outs and Straub grabs three of his 6 strikes out to end the threat and the inning.
Metea’s outfield came to play in the second half of the game. Tyler Campise makes the great diving catch to grab an out and give Metea a chance to get on the board in the bottom of the inning.
Sixth Inning
And they do just that. Cade Sullivan, in the 6th inning, hits a homer to left field to put Metea on the board, trailing 8-1.
Seventh Inning
But that is where the mustangs luck would run out. Jared Suchevits on the mound gets his final out of the night, ending with the complete game win for Naperville Central to advance to the regional championships for the 10th year in a row.
Check out how the other area baseball and softball teams are doing in our Sports Highlights!