Geneva's Davis shuts down St. Charles North

The Geneva baseball team needed a lift after dropping back-to-back Upstate Eight Conference River games to St. Charles North.

Garrett Davis answered the bell for the Vikings Thursday afternoon in St. Charles.

The junior southpaw was masterful, facing the minimum in five of the seven innings.

Geneva showcased solid defense and timely hitting to salvage the finale of the three-game series with a 4-1 victory.

Three of the principals saw the game with the same lens.

"(Davis) throws four different pitches for strikes," Geneva coach Matt Hahn said.

"I had control of all my pitches today," Davis said.

"(Davis) pitched well, and you have to tip your cap to him," St. Charles North coach Todd Genke said.

Geneva (10-4, 6-3), which outhit St. Charles North 10-2, scored single runs in the second and third innings as Jason Croci and Nathan Montgomery delivered two-out singles with runners in scoring position.

"We never give up at the plate," Davis said. "We're always trying to get better at the plate - get that extra hit, that extra run."

The Vikings' defense was another major storyline in the series finale.

Two fielding errors enabled St. Charles North to score its lone run in the fourth inning, but Davis' defense was otherwise outstanding.

"It's easy to throw the ball over the plate when you have your defense behind you," Davis said.

"They made plays they haven't made the whole series defensively," Genke said.

Cory Wright and Nick Drawant had soft singles to spoil Davis' potential no-hit bid in the fourth inning for St. Charles North, but the junior escaped further damage to maintain the Vikings' 2-1 cushion.

The Vikings added an all-important insurance run in its half of the sixth inning as consecutive two-out singles by Brandon Evert, Croci and Max Novak doubled the lead to 3-1.

Geneva had an opportunity to deliver a knockout blow with the bases loaded in the inning.

Chally, who had the only extra-base hit of the game, hit a long fly deep in the left-field corner.

But the North Stars' Drawant made a spectacular catch of the ball in foul territory, miraculously holding onto the ball after crashing violently into the fence.

Davis, though, had no intentions of letting St. Charles North back into the game.

The North Stars' fifth and final baserunner of the game, Drawant, was stranded at second base as Davis completed his 2-hit gem with a routine grounder to shortstop.

"We have to be a little bit more selective," Genke said.

Geneva scored an unearned run its half of the seventh to conclude the scoring.

"To go up three at the end kind of took some of their strategy out," Hahn said.