Naperville North junior right fielder Caden Vorwick knows that sometimes it’s not how far you hit the baseball, but where.

Vorwick demonstrated that against Neuqua Valley on Monday when he laid down a safety squeeze bunt with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth inning, sending teammate Matt Sonnenschein home for the first run of the game.

“It was huge,” Naperville North coach Jim Chiappetta said. “Loading the bases with nobody out, you want to make sure you put something on the board.

“Caden executed that perfectly. His timing was right, got a bunt where he needed to, and we were able to get one across. It was big because you don’t want to come away with nothing there.”

Vorwick’s bunt broke a scoreless tie. He later hit a leadoff double and scored as part of a four-run rally that broke the game open and propelled the visiting Huskies to a 6-2 DuPage Valley Conference victory in Naperville.

“That was very important for us,” Naperville North senior left fielder Matt Cantrell said. “I think that really got the game going. It really got us fired up, so I think that was great.”

Neuqua Valley senior Jack Martin and Naperville North senior Yash Desai were locked in a pitching duel through three innings, with each allowing just one hit.

Sonnenschein, a senior shortstop who has committed to Wisconsin-La Crosse, and junior center fielder Max Steele, who is also a standout basketball player, began the Huskies’ half of the fourth inning with back-to-back singles. Freshman first baseman Lawton Close then reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases.

Martin struck out the next hitter, and Chiappetta called for the squeeze play. Vorwick bunted the ball halfway to the right side of the mound, where neither the pitcher nor the catcher could get to it quickly.

“I definitely just wanted to get it down,” Vorwick said. “You got to get those balls down. I mean, if I didn’t get it down, he would have obviously been out at the plate, and it would have been another inning without scoring when we needed to, so just get the ball down and good things will happen.”

Vorwick and his teammates routinely practice bunting. The strategy varies according to the situation. Squeeze plays are riskier but fairly rare.

“When we’re going for sacrifices, just bunt strikes, and that’s it,” Vorwick said. “That’s where you look to go more down the lines.

“But during that at-bat, I just tried to go put the ball in play, and that worked out.”

Things didn’t always work out for Vorwick earlier in the season, when he was batting third or fourth in the order for the Huskies (13-13, 9-4). But he has improved since Chiappetta moved him down to the seventh spot and is batting .284 with four doubles, five RBIs and 12 runs scored.

“I definitely started off slow,” Vorwick said. “It’s hard to start on varsity.

“I like the seven hole, just to see what the pitcher’s got, and that gives me more confidence going forward.”

After Naperville North made it 2-0 on back-to-back doubles by Sonnenschein and Steele in the fifth, Vorwick, feeling buoyed by his earlier bunt, led off the sixth with a double to right.

“When you do something right, that just keeps going, and you just want to keep doing the same thing,” Vorwick said. “I saw a good pitch to hit — good change-up — and drove it.”

Cantrell, an Illinois Wesleyan recruit, drove in Vorwick with a single and later scored on an RBI single by senior catcher Zach Bava, an Illinois State commit. Steele’s two-run single made it 6-0.

The Wildcats (11-13-1, 6-7) got two runs back on a two-run single by senior right fielder Joe Barkley, a Lake Land commit, in the bottom of the sixth and had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh. But Desai (6-1) induced a ground ball that the Huskies turned into a double play to end it.

Neuqua Valley’s late rally proved the importance of Vorwick’s double.

“I feel like him getting that double was crucial for me and my confidence and my motivation to make something happen,” Cantrell said. “He’s a great guy to be around, always smiling, always happy, always picking guys up.

“He swings it well. His right field has been great, so that’s been a really big factor for us.”

Indeed, Vorwick’s fielding percentage of .974 is the highest on the team. He has made only one error in 39 chances.

“His defense all season has been outstanding in right field,” Chiappetta said. “He’s been playing very well of late offensively.

“We expect good things from him moving forward.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.