New Trier bats chill against GBN but Trevs are winners of 10 of last 13

New Trier’s bats were hot, but Glenbrook North’s Sam Gaffney served as the cooler on Monday evening in Northbrook.

After scoring 24 combined runs in wins on Friday and Saturday, April 11-12, the Trevians (10-3-1) managed just two against Gaffney and the Spartans (7-6), who picked up the 4-2 victory in the Central Suburban South opener.

New Trier’s first-year coach Dusty Napoleon said Gaffney (7 IP, 6 hits, 5 K’s, 0 walks), a right-hander, worked the edges of the plate well, staying clear of the Trevians potent left-handed hitters.

“When you’re getting ahead of hitters, he could kind of do what he wanted,” Napoleon said. “He was pitching with his fastball to his arm side, which, especially with the wind blowing to right field, was going away from lefties and then in to righties.”

Napoleon lamented his lineup not punishing the Spartans in the early innings, as New Trier put at least one runner on base in each of the first five frames. They had two runners on with no one out in the second but could not push one across the plate.

The Trevians’ bats finally came around in the fifth inning, when three straight singles (Harry Resis, Caiden Carpenter, Trey Meyers) plated one run, and Ben Toft followed with an RBI ground out to make it a 4-2 ballgame.

But New Trier went six up and six down in the final two innings to end the day.

The Spartans’ big blow came on Chase Peterson’s two-run home run in the third. They pushed two more across in the fourth.

Greg Campitelli threw four innings for New Trier and struck out four. Senior Trevian Justin Rausch threw two scoreless innings in relief, striking out three.

Meyers, an Indiana University commit, continued his torrid offensive start to the season with two more hits. He is batting .525 in the team’s first 14 games, recording 21 hits (3 of them home runs), 18 runs and 11 stolen bases out of the leadoff spot.

Following Meyers in the lineup is right fielder Toft, a senior bound for the University of Iowa, and catcher Jake Bentivenga, a senior who leads the team in home runs (3) and RBI (14).

Napoleon said those three have been the key to the team’s successful early run, but he also credited seniors Carpenter (shortstop), CJ Donnelly (second base/utility) and Zach Perchik (center field) for creating havoc for other teams.

“They can run, they can bunt. They’re just really tough outs in the lineup,” Napoleon said.

Juniors Luke Mastros (3B/1B) and Mason Bloom (OF) add more right-handed pop to New Trier’s lineup.

Henrik Conniff, a senior, and Campitelli, a junior, top the pitching rotation — both have three wins already — while sophomore Justice Hernandez has popped with a 0.81 ERA through four appearances. Rausch, Nick Bailey and Jackie Ryder are other names making an early impression on the mound for the Trevians.

The matchup with Glenbrook North is the first in a three-game set this week. In a new format for the CSL South, teams will play in a series during the week. It’s a format that Napoleon is looking forward to.

“I love it, reminds me of my college days,” said Napoleon, who used to coach with Northwestern baseball. “There’s a little strategy going into the three games and we’ll see who’s the more complete teams at the end of the year.”

New Trier is coming off a remarkable 2024 season in which they recorded 30 wins in a row and gave their coach, Mike Napoleon, his 1,000th victory.

But the season ended short of a state-finals appearance, the Trevians’ goal and one they reached a year earlier in 2023.

Coach Dusty Napoleon, Mike Napoleon’s son and a former Trevian player, said his team has the talent to do it and it’s all about “focusing on the little things.”

Toft is on the same page.

“We have a good energy and bring a good atmosphere to wherever we are,” he said. “We just gotta keep playing our ball. Losses like this (on Monday) happen. That’s part of baseball. We just keep playing our game, we’ll be all right. We’re a really good team. We just have to believe in ourselves.”

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