Greenberg's gem ousts St. Charles North
With a 19-game winning streak and a 32-4 record entering Wednesday it looked like this might be the year No. 1 seed St. Charles North could win the elusive first sectional title in school history.
Glenbard North right-hander Luke Greenberg had other ideas in the Class 4A St. Charles East sectional semifinals.
Greenberg outlasted the North Stars' Tyler Mettetal in a classic pitcher's duel, winning 1-0 to propel the Panthers into the sectional title game and adding another chapter to St. Charles North's postseason heartbreaks.
Greenberg pitched a complete game, allowing just 3 singles and 1 walk while striking out eight and throwing 99 pitches.
"It was a fun back and forth," said Greenberg, now 8-4. "I like competition. I just knew I had to come out and hit every spot and throw my best pitches and I did it today. My curve ball was on point today. That helped me out. Everything was working today."
Glenbard North (25-10) will play the winner of Thursday's South Elgin-Lake Park matchup in Saturday's championship game.
"Hats off to their guy on the mound," Glenbard North coach Rich Smelko said. "He's filthy. He throws some nice stuff. That was one of his (Greenberg's) best performances today in a big spot."
St. Charles North (32-5), meanwhile, saw another season as a high seed end short of where it expected to get.
"It's not easy to get through these games," North Stars coach Todd Genke said. "I give their pitcher credit. We knew all about (Eric) Orze (11-0). We didn't know much about this young man. He threw a ton of breaking balls and we just didn't execute offensively with his breaking ball."
The Panthers scored the only run in the top of the seventh.
Mettetal (8-2) struggled with his control early, walking 5 in the first 4 innings. But the sophomore left-hander got stronger as the game went on, and he opened the seventh with a strikeout and 2 quick strikes on Mark Cerabona.
Cerabona got around on a Mettetal fastball, lining a single to left. Neal Shah walked, bringing Genke to the mound with Mettetal sitting at 115 pitches.
"He still had great velocity in the seventh," Genke said. "I went out and talked to him and said, 'It's OK if you want to come out, we've got Christian (Sidoti) ready,' and he said, 'Coach, I want to stay in. I can get the next two.' Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and go with your player. It's a shame to lose a game like that."
Orze hit a slow roller to Zach Mettetal at shortstop who charged and flipped to second but not in time, loading the bases.
After Nolan Jasinski popped up for the second out, Nick Barrett worked a walk - Mettetal's seventh - to force in the only run of the game.
"Mark down 0-2 kind of got the rally going," Smelko said. "Some patience at the plate. The close play at second base worked out in our favor today."
Sidoti then came in, ending Mettetal's day after 10 strikeouts, just 4 hits and 126 pitches, and got a grounder to end the inning.
St. Charles North went quietly in the bottom of the seventh with three straight outs including a pair of strikeouts looking, the final one after Greenberg worked back from a 3-0 count.
Mettetal escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first. The North Stars left a pair of runners in both the fourth and fifth innings; the later rally snuffed out when second baseman Barrett dove to take away what would have been a run-scoring hit by Wright on a line shot up the middle.
"Off the bat I was like 'yeah' and then he caught it," said the Kansas-State bound Wright, the North Stars' all-time leader in pitching victories. "It's not a great feeling knowing that's the last shot.
"I know these guys will be more motivated than ever to win state next year. You look back at our season and see all the great things we've done, it's a great memory to look back on, but once again we fall short in the postseason. I keep preaching to the guys we can't let that happen."
That success in the regular season included the Upstate Eight Conference River Division championship. That, as Wright said, wasn't the ultimate goal.
"They are a good hitting team and he (Mettetal) shut them down," Genke said. "We just have to score some runs.
"It's hard winning this time of year. The state doesn't do you any favors. One and done is a crime I feel. If you play a 3-game series, who knows? It's just a shame. You win 32 games, win 20 in a row and for your season to end 1-0 it just doesn't seem fair. I love the team, they have been very close-nit, led by Cory Wright and all the way down to 3 sophomores we had up.
"It felt like this was the team that was going to be able to get through the sectional."