St. Charles North completes sweep

Only one thing looked better to St. Charles North than the 2-1 final on the scoreboard Thursday - the brooms a few of their fans were waving after the game.

The North Stars completed their first sweep of St. Charles East in what coach Todd Genke thought was 10 years, overcoming an early 1-0 deficit with RBI singles by John LeGare and Zach Mettetal in the fourth inning.

Sam Hubbe and Christian Sidoti did the rest, holding the Saints to 1 run for the third straight day. Hubbe pitched the first 4 innings, Sidoti the final 3.

"Last year we got swept and it was pretty painful and this year we get the sweep," Mettetal said. "It feels pretty good. Our pitchers are usually on, if they are not on we are hitting. Just everything is clicking."

St. Charles North (17-4, 10-3) took command of the Upstate Eight Conference River with its play the past three days against St. Charles East (12-7, 7-5), who has scored just 6 runs in its 5-game losing streak.

"Sweeping anybody is a boost but especially when it's St. Charles East," North Stars coach Todd Genke said. "Coming in every one was talking about how good their season was going and we were flying under the radar. Our kids wanted to show they were the best team in St. Charles this year."

The Saints scored their only run in the first inning. Max Powers lined a shot that ricocheted off Hubbe for an infield single to open the game. Anthony Adduci reached on an error and Jake Asquini drew a 2-out walk to load the bases before Reid Olson was hit by a pitch to force in the Saints' lone run.

Austin Regelbrugge made the lead hold up for 3 innings. With a runner at second in the third Regelbrugge struck out the next 3 hitters.

Regelbrugge finished with 6 strikeouts, allowing 4 singles, 2 walks and no earned runs.

"Boy was he tough," Saints coach Len Asquini said. "He didn't have his best stuff. He was in some jams out there and he pitched himself right out of it. He made some big pitches and got some big outs."

The North Stars got to Regelbrugge in the fourth, capitalizing when the Saints lost a fly ball in the sun in right field. That put Kyle Novotney at second, and he scored when LeGare fought out of an 0-2 hole to work a full count and then take an outside fastball into right field for a game-tying single.

"I just had to battle it out," LeGare said. "Looking for something outside, getting up on the plate and taking away the inside pitch. Just looking for something I could take the other way."

LeGare stole second and came home when Mettetal lined the first pitch he saw into left field for what proved to be the game-winning hit.

"The whole year I've been hitting the ball pretty hard but right at people," Mettetal said. "Today I barreled up and no one was there. It was a good feeling."

LeGare's steal was one of five for the North Stars who dominated the running game. The Saints, meanwhile, had 2 runners thrown out by Kyle Khoury including one to end the game.

The North Stars also turned two double plays, and center fielder Brendan Joyce threw out Adduci trying to stretch a single into a double.

"This is the best team speed I think we've ever had," Genke said. "We get really good dirt ball reads. We always say we want to score as fast as possible. So we want to get to the next base as fast as possible and keep the line moving. We took advantage of that today. You get a guy in scoring position now you only need one hit to get him in. Our speed has been a big part of what we've done so far."

Hubbe struck out 3 and walked 1 in his 4 innings. Genke came to the mound early in the second inning.

"I kind of challenged him," Genke said. "I felt he was aiming the ball instead of throwing. He's a big-time pitcher."

Novotney was the only batter on either team with 2 hits.

Geneva, who started the Saints' slide with 2 wins over them last week, moved to 8-5 in the UEC River on Thursday and a half-game past St. Charles East, who has another tough matchup Saturday against Neuqua Valley.

"We've got stuff to work on but it looked a whole lot better today all the way around than it's been," Asquini said. "We took a step in the right direction today. No one likes to say we got swept here but it is a competitive game which those other two really weren't on our side. It certainly was a better showing."