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Dinardo's homers help Devils end skid
May 3, 2007 | Jeff Davis, Sports Editor | Hinsdale Doings
Hinsdale Central senior Jack DiNardo’s baseball days are numbered, but he’s trying to make the most of them.
DiNardo is a 6-foot-4, 250-pound designated hitter who will play defensive end for the Northwestern football team next fall. On Saturday, he put on a power display by smashing mammoth home runs in each game as the Red Devils stunningly swept a road doubleheader from West Suburban Conference Silver Division leader Downers Grove North 5-4 and 9-6 to snap a 10-game losing streak.
DiNardo finished 5 for 8 on the day with five RBIs and four runs to raise his average to around .350.
“I’m definitely feeling good at the plate. A lot of times once the weather warms up the bats heat as well,” DiNardo said. “This is probably the last time I’ll play baseball on a team. I’m definitely thinking about it every day. So I want to enjoy it, and I would like to have success before I’m done.”
Both of DiNardo’s homers came on 0-1 pitches. The first was a three-run laser shot on a curveball off Trojans’ ace A.J. Mulford that cleared the 389-foot mark in center to break a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning. The second was a two-run blast to left-center on a fastball that gave the Red Devils (6-12, 5-6 in Silver) a 5-2 lead in the third inning.
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They were just missiles,” marveled Hinsdale Central coach Tom Dorrance.
“Everybody wants to throw curveballs to Jack, but if you hang one ... Jack just demolished it. It was quite impressive.”
DiNardo has now homered in three straight games, having hit one off Lyons Township ace Grant Fillipitch (7-0) in a 10-5 loss April 24. He hit three homers in two straight traveling ball games a couple years ago.
But DiNardo seemed more excited about Hinsdale Central’s wins than the homers. “Saturday was definitely a good day for our team,” DiNardo said. “We’ve struggled the last couple weeks, and things started to click on offense and defense.
“Downers (13-4, 8-3 in Silver) was ranked going into Saturday and it’s a great feeling to get a couple quality wins and play our best baseball that we’ve played so far. We hope to build on it.”
Hinsdale Central committed only one error and collected 17 hits on the day. Kasey Ourada (3-3) earned the complete-game pitching victory in the opener, scattering 10 hits but striking out 11 and walking none, although he hit two batters.
The Red Devils scored what proved to be the game-winning run when Rich Brennan reached on an outfield error after Frank Defino and Kris Leksas hit back-to-back, one-out singles in the top of the seventh. Downers North made things interesting by loading the bases with two outs in its final at-bat. After hitting a batter to force home a run, Ourada got a force out to end the game.
DiNardo (3 for 4) singled and scored on a wild pitch in the second, while Leksas (2 hits) and Brett Suchy (walk) scored on DiNardo’s homer.
In the second game, sophomore Jason McClain helped himself earn his first varsity pitching win by hitting a 2-2 pitch for a two-run single in the seventh inning that scored Suchy and Eric Wroble, who both had walked. McClain also hit an 0-2 pitch for an RBI single in a three-run first after
Leksas walked, DiNardo singled and Wroble ripped a two-run triple. Wroble also had an RBI double with two outs in the fifth for a 6-2 lead. Suchy reached on a bunt single and scored on DiNardo’s homer.
McClain gave up two runs on six hits in four innings. Marc Weimer earned the save, getting a game-ending double play after hitting and walking two batters to send the tying run to the plate in the seventh.
“I don’t think anybody expected that. (Downers North) had handed it to us last summer,” Dorrance said of the sweep. “The kids played really well. They attacked the ball, got clutch hits and fielded the ball. We needed something like that. It was a great day.”
Against LT (18-4, 11-3), Wroble went 2 for 3 and scored on Billy Auriemma’s groundout in a three-run fifth to cut the lead to 7-5, but the Red Devils couldn’t recover from the Lions’ seven-run fourth that included a triple and two doubles.
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