By Bobby Narang
Naperville Central High School senior Gabe Dickerson will never forget the final week of the regular baseball season.
May 16, he was named DuPage Valley Conference co-Pitcher of the Year with Neuqua Valley senior, Mark Mennecke.
The next day, he officially signed his letter-of-intent to play baseball for North Central College in Naperville.
“This has been a great week, with our school ending, and I was glad to be done, and I was so happy to be with my teammates in practice and our team winning on Wednesday,” Dickerson said. “I was super excited to get the DVC pitcher of the year and split it. Wednesday was an exciting morning. It was super early, but I was excited to do it.”
Dickerson added to his memorable week in the DVC tournament championship game May 18.
He pitched six innings, scattered six hits, struck out one batter and walked one to lead the Redhawks to a 6-3 victory over the Huskies at Naperville Central. Pambos Nicoloudes paced the Redhawks with two hits, including an RBI double that smacked off the left-center wall in the bottom of the fourth.
The Redhawks (22-8) won the regular season and conference championships for the second time in three seasons. The Redhawks defeated their neighborhood rivals, Naperville North Huskies, for the fourth time this season, which included sweeping a three-game Conference series.
Naperville Central head coach Mike Stock marveled at Dickerson’s three-day run this week.
“Now I think about it, it was a good week for him,” Stock said. “He’s earned it. He pitched great today. He makes guys swing the bats, put the ball in play with weak contact. He battles out there. He’s tough on right and left-handers. He’s not even close to our hardest thrower. He’s got a great demeanor and it’s an easy choice to give him the ball.”
The Huskies (15-10-1) out hit the hosts, 7-5, but couldn’t take advantage of two bases-loaded situations in the final three innings, and scored just two runs. Tanner Mally led the Huskies with two hits to put his total at 110 career hits.
Naperville North head coach Jim Chiappetta praised Dickerson for a strong performance on the mound.
“Their pitcher is crafty and changing speeds and changes arm angles,” Chiappetta said. “If you can change speeds and keep hitters off-balance, you can be effective. He has a solid defense behind him. It was well done by him. We told the team after the game that we have an opportunity for number five against them if we win our first playoff game.”
Dickerson (6-2) said he kept his approach simple.
“I just tried to focus on winning this game,” Dickerson said. “We needed this game so bad. I’m so happy with the way the team played. I was just focusing on throwing my fastball, change-up, and curveball, for strikes.”
Naperville Central senior catcher Colin Barczi, a Vanderbilt University recruit, said Dickerson pitched outstanding.
“He’s been lights-out all season,” Barczi said. “He’s got that weird arm action. He just throws everything for strikes and is so hard to hit, even though he’s not blowing it by anybody. His curveball was working and his fastball has everyone guessing. He’s so fun to catch. His change-up was really nice today and he was reaching back for some extra miles per hour on his fastball…. It was a great day for Gabe.”
The Huskies could get another crack at finally beating the Naperville Central. The teams could meet up in the Class 4A Naperville Central Regional championship game May 27.