If the IHSA wanted a District 203 regional final, No. 7 Naperville Central did its part, advancing with Wednesday's 14-5 victory over No. 10 Hinsdale Central.
Now it shifts to No. 2 Naperville North (24-7), which will play No. 18 Lincoln-Way Central (16-15-1) Thursday afternoon at Naperville Central.
No matter the opponent on Saturday, the Redhawks plan to throw sophomore Dan Ludwig (5-1, 2.20 ERA), who last week allowed three runs in six-plus innings and received a no-decision in a 4-3 comeback win against North.
On Wednesday the Redhawks (21-14) fell behind 4-1 early but Ben Lucas answered with a three-run homer that tied the game in the third inning. They finished Hinsdale Central (17-14) with a seven-run fifth inning that saw only two hits as 10 Redhawks marched to the plate.
That inning was prolonged by two errors - Pat Kaminska's sacrifice bunt scored two runs and Nick Linne's simple groundball to third later added three more.
"All year long, we've played pretty solid defense for the most part and today we let it slip from us," Hinsdale Central coach Tom Dorrance said. "We gave them too many runs. You can't give a good team like that that many opportunities. Too many balls between our legs, too many bad decisions, too many guys (not) in the right spot."
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