After coming so far the past two weeks, senior Mark Noth and his Hinsdale Central baseball teammates were left with nowhere to go Monday.

The Red Devils had gone further in the postseason than any team in program history, but they were finally halted one step shy of a Class AA state quarterfinal berth by a 7-2 loss to Naperville Central at the North Central College Super-Sectional in Naperville.

What the Red Devils (25-11) accomplished was even more meaningful since they had 15 seniors and made an emotional turnaround after they won their first 12 games and started 16-1 but then were 5-9 to finish the regular season.

"We had a really tough end of the year and the fact that we were able to bounce back and put up such a great run in the playoffs, it makes it special, but at the same time makes it hurt even a little more," senior co-captain Mark Noth said. "You've got to come together as a team. We did that at the end, which started this run, and that's why it's so sad to see it end."

The Red Devils recaptured their chemistry with their mouths and stomachs. Besides focusing on a return to team baseball, they benefited from pre-game meals at Papa Passero's.

"We're all good friends here and we were all just basically (complaining) at each other every single game, and we just needed to stop that," Noth said.

"The key was the last (regular-season) game. We got beat by Oak Park, a team we took two out of three from last year. We were fighting a lot. We weren't really staying in sync. We went to Papa Passero's, like 15 of us. We've been doing that before every single game now in the playoffs."

On Saturday, the Red Devils won the first sectional title in program history by beating West Chicago 2-1 at Downers Grove South behind Noth's two-run homer in the first inning, a great complete-game performance by winning pitcher Kasey Ourada (8-1) and a near flawless game.

Things didn't go as well Monday against the Redhawks (32-7), but the Red Devils persevered.

Trailing 7-0 and after stranding seven runners -- six in scoring position -- over the first six innings, the Red Devils were down to their final out with no runners on base. Then Noth reached on a dropped third strike, senior Brett Morse singled and senior designated hitter Colin Cimala smacked a two-run double.

"In all of the games that we lost this year, I don't know if there's one that I was proud of my guys for battling hard. This one I was. If we were going to go down, I wanted to go down with an effort," Hinsdale Central coach Tom Dorrance said.

"The bottom line is they did turn it around and start playing like a team and believing in each other again and doing the things that are important for a team victory. I'm a Cubs fan, but I love the way the White Sox put their (World Series championship) team together. I hope the guys learned from that."

The Redhawks scored three runs off senior starter Nick Kurash (4-5) in the first inning. Leadoff hitter Garrett Branisel walked, Sean Joyce singled and Branisel scored when the throw as Joyce stole second deflected into center field. After a run-scoring grounder, Mike Odenthal tripled and Corey Pryor doubled.

Senior reliever Anthony Fountas held the Redhawks scoreless and hitless over the next three innings before a single, triple, two-run single and two-run homer by winning pitcher Colin Bates (9-1), which hit the top of the fence and went over, added four more runs in the fifth. Senior Will Lamb pitched a scoreless sixth.

"It's the first time I've seen (Fountas) just take command, and I love that. I wish we had another game so he could do that again," Dorrance said.

The Red Devils outhit Naperville Central 9-7 but stranded at least one runner in scoring position each of the first five innings.

In the second, the Red Devils loaded the bases with one out as Morse walked, Cimala reached on an error and junior Eric Wroble walked. Bates (5 strikeouts, 3 walks) got a called third strikeout and a force out to escape.

"I thought we had some great at-bats. We had a lot of baserunners on. We just couldn't get that hit when we needed it," Dorrance said.

"Even in the seventh inning, you could tell we never gave up -- two runs and a line shot (to center field) to end it," senior co-captain Andrew Nicholas said. "The hits didn't fall our way, and we left a few too many people on base. They did a great job and it was a great job by their pitcher to get out of jams. Hopefully they'll do well (at state) to prove that we were pretty good, too."

West Chicago (18-17), the sectional's No. 13 seed, upset top-seeded Benet 1-0 in 10 innings May 31. Noth's ninth homer this season Saturday for the second-seeded Red Devils came after Nicholas singled and senior Toby Adeyemi reached on a force out. In the top of the inning, West Chicago had two runners on with no outs, but Ourada got a pop out and a third-to-first double play turned by third baseman Alex Bellusci.

Ourada allowed eight hits with one walk and nine strikeouts, the final one to end the game with the tying run on third base. The Wildcats stranded eight runners, five in scoring position.

That victory erased Noth's bad memories of the Red Devils' 2-1 regional final loss to Nazareth in 2005. The Roadrunners scored twice in the top of the seventh after Noth had been caught off third base in a rundown in the fifth.

On Monday, Noth reflected on his days in Burr Ridge-Willowbrook Little League with Bellusci, Cimala and seniors Kevin Quirke and Charlie Thomas.

"A lot us have been playing with each or against either other since we were like 8-year-old all-stars," Noth said. "It's been a long time. It was a good run."

It's a group that Dorrance knew was special, even when things may have looked their bleakest during a rainy day at practice after two players just had been suspended following prom.

"I said, 'We're going to go further than any Hinsdale Central baseball team ever has,' " Dorrance said.

"I looked at them and I started barking about team stuff and then I saw it inside. All of a sudden things were clicking. I really felt like we could because we've got that competitive nature and we're dumb enough to not think that we're that good but smart enough to believe in ourselves and know we can do it."

Copyright© 2006, The Doings