Wright, St. Charles retire Geneva
No offense against Geneva's baseball team but St. Charles North's Cory Wright may have faced his toughest battle the past couple days prior to Tuesday afternoon's game.
Wright, a senior left-hander, struggled through a case of food poisoning over the weekend while attending his brother's wedding in Arizona.
The Kansas State-bound Wright escaped a couple early inning jams and allowed just 1 run on 3 hits through 6 innings during the North Stars' 5-1 victory in their Upstate Eight Conference River Division season debut in Geneva.
"I'm not in the best shape right now but I just battled through it and had fun today," said Wright, who hit a batter, walked 2 and struck out 4 before giving way to junior reliever Christian Sidoti, who fanned 2 in a scoreless seventh.
Wright (2-0) enjoyed a 1-0 lead before taking the mound as junior outfielder Brendan Joyce reached on a leadoff walk, took second on a passed ball, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a 1-out throwing error.
The North Stars (6-0, 1-0) scored another run in the second as John Legare led off with a single, took second on a wild pitch and scored on sophomore Tyler Mettetal's RBI single to right.
Zach Mettetal drove in the North Stars' third run in the fourth with a 1-out sacrifice fly after Legare led off the inning with a walk.
"I thought our kids did a great job of taking the extra base today whether it was on a steal or a ball hit in the outfield," said North Stars coach Todd Genke. "I felt like we really executed well on the bases. I thought that made a huge difference.
"Sacrifice flies - doing the little things. When the wind's blowing like this and the temperature is like this (low 40s), you've got to execute those things."
St. Charles North, which had its leadoff hitter reach base in all 7 innings, padded its lead with a pair of sixth-inning runs on RBI sacrifice flies from Tyler Madsen and Joyce.
"It's the chemistry that we want," said Genke. "Get the leadoff guy on and then you can manufacture (runs). You can move the runners, you can steal and you can bunt them over."
Geneva (1-3, 0-1), meanwhile, had several scoring opportunities but only had 1 leadoff hitter reach base.
With 1 out in the first, Garrett Davis singled and Jack Wassel walked before North Stars second baseman Madsen turned a double play with help from a successful scoop by first baseman Tyler Mettetal.
The Vikings also stranded a pair of runners in the second before finally getting on the board in the sixth.
"I liked our approach the whole game," said Vikings coach Matt Hahn. "That's something we've worked really hard on because we're not the team that we've had in the past that can hit home runs.
"It's hard to do those things when your first guy on base is with 2 outs and against a lefty (Wright) with a phenomenal move (to first). He's tough - their whole team is tough. It's only our fourth game but they're clearly the best team we've seen."
Mitchell Merges suffered the loss for the Vikings.
"He pitched Opening Day against Warren and gave up 8 free passes," said Hahn. "He threw strikes today. I think our defense let him down a little bit."
Wright retired 10 of 12 batters he faced during the middle innings.
"Cory's one of the best kids in the state on the mound," said Genke. "He comes right at you and forces you to put the ball in play. He's a tremendous competitor."