Brady Bauer had the green light.

Working ahead 3-0 in the count, Bauer eyed a pitch right down the middle and swung for the fences, blasting the ball over the left-field wall.

The Cary-Grove senior’s home run ignited a nine-run seventh inning for the Trojans, who scored 14 runs over the final two frames to beat Woodstock North 16-1 in nonconference play Monday night.

“After the third ball, I was ready to get in there and take the biggest swing I could,” Bauer said. “I found the ball right down the middle... Our coach was talking to our bench players about bringing the energy up. We have a lot of personalities in our dugout and they don’t show it all of the time. Our coaches fired them up and got the energy going.”

Bauer’s two-run blast was the second of six hits in the seventh for the Trojans (3-2), who were in a pitchers’ duel with the Thunder (1-2) over the first five innings. Cary-Grove senior Kaden Norman did his part on the mound, striking out six while holding Woodstock North to one walk and one unearned run on three hits over five strong innings.

“This was one of those outings where it was more about getting in the zone early and attacking with the stuff I have,” Norman said. “I’m in a spot mentally and with my body where I can just let my stuff play. The wind was helping my fastball a lot and I was getting a lot of run on it. Usually, I’m using my fastball early since I get a lot of movement.”

Woodstock North left-hander Ryan Lalor navigated around multiple jams to keep the Thunder in the mix. Despite walking five batters, Lalor struck out four and limited the Trojans to two runs on four hits over three innings. Zaiden Vess entered in relief and held his own over the fourth and fifth, striking out three to keep it a 2-1 game.

“Those are two of the top guys on our staff,” Woodstock North coach John Oslovich said. “They’re veteran pitchers for us and they know how to execute a game plan. They throw a lot of different pitches for strikes and that’s what we strive to do, which is keeping hitters off balance. They executed the game plan and did a really good job.”

But the Trojans, who scattered runners early in the game, broke out in the sixth. With one out and the bases loaded, Canyon McKinney lofted an RBI single into shallow right and lead-off man Oskar Freund lined a two-run double to deep left soon after. Mason Klimek and Jack Barcy each drove runners home in the next two at-bats to put C-G up 7-1.

“We take a lot of time getting the ball to the opposite field,” said Klimek, who went 3 for 4 with three RBIs in the game. “We’re not looking to pull the ball because you’re not going to be able to pull the ball every single time. Pitchers around here and in our conference like to attack outside, so you have to be able to hit to the opposite field.”

C-G’s five-run sixth gave way to the nine-run seventh that featured four extra-base hits including an RBI triple by Klimek and consecutive RBI doubles by Dylan Dumele and Andrew Paduch. The Trojans, who finished with 14 hits, will face Lakes on the road Wednesday evening. Woodstock North will travel to Prairie Ridge that same day.

“We just didn’t put enough hits together,” Oslovich said. “We had some guys on base. We just didn’t capitalize when we had guys on.”

C-G broke the 0-0 tie with two runs in the top of the second, where Freund and Klimek both reached on bases-loaded walks. Woodstock North answered in the bottom of the third, tacking one run on after Braeden Berner drove Spencer McDonald home on a grounder to short.