advertisement

Nutof's effort helps South Elgin down St. Charles North

Ryan Nutof finally got a chance to finish a game Thursday.

The South Elgin senior found himself in some trouble in the top of the seventh but fought through it to earn a complete-game victory in the Storm's 3-2 Upstate Eight crossover win over St. Charles North.

"Every game I try to go all seven. It just worked out this time," Nutof said. "I was feeling good. Through the fourth inning I felt like I definitely could go the whole game."

Nutof, who has committed to the University of Michigan, got his first victory of the season after throwing four and five innings in his first two starts, respectively. The right-hander allowed just 4 hits, walked 3 and struck out 12. Neither run he allowed was earned.

The Storm (4-2, 3-1) led 2-1 going into the bottom of the sixth and added another unearned run as Dane Toppel drove in Jared Kramer, who reached on STC North's fourth error of the game, for a 3-1 lead.

Nutof walked the leadoff hitter to open the seventh. After a strikeout and a groundout back to Nutof, Cory Wright reached to put runners on first and second. Pinch hitter Anthony Lambert reached on an infield single and the throw to first got away, allowing Tim Hausl to score and make it 3-2. Nutof then got Jack Dennis to hit into a fielder's choice to end the game.

"Ryan did a real good job. We didn't help him out too much defensively," Storm coach Jim Kating said. "He was out a good extra six or seven batters with some of our fielding errors we had."

South Elgin committed 5 errors, including three in the second inning when the North Stars (8-2, 3-1) scored their other run on a Zach Mettetal run-scoring single after Kyle Khoury reached because of an error.

Frankie Ferry (1-1) was the hard-luck loser on the mound. The right-hander allowed 7 hits and 3 runs in 6 innings, but wasn't helped defensively either as North finished with 4 errors.

"A couple of those groundballs, those got to be outs. We can't give up free baserunners," STC North coach Todd Genke said. "(Ferry) deserved a better fate. No question."

The Storm scored in the first on Antonio Danesi's sacrifice fly and in the second on Toppel's RBI groundout.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.