Baseball: Geneva ends St. Charles North's win streak at 14
Needing a victory to enhance its Upstate Eight Conference River Division title hopes, Geneva's baseball team faced a difficult challenge against St. Charles North Friday afternoon.
First, the Vikings were facing a North Stars team riding the wave of a 14-game winning streak.
In addition, the Vikings had scored just two runs while dropping the first two games of the 3-game series.
Despite letting a 2-0 lead slip away in the bottom of the seventh, the Vikings (15-6, 9-3) pushed a run across in the top of the eighth and held on for a 3-2 extra-inning victory in St. Charles.
Minnesota-bound senior Jack Wassel knocked in the go-ahead run off North Stars reliever Christian Sidoti with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to left, his second run-producing sacrifice fly of the contest.
"Sidoti is a hard thrower," said Wassel. "He came at me with a first-pitch curveball and I thought I passed the plate on a checked swing for a strike but he (umpire) gave me a ball. Then, I was looking fastball.
"My swing was actually not looking too good today but I made some contact when it counted."
Wassel's plate approach wasn't a surprise to Vikings coach Matt Hahn.
"He has been doing it all year," said Hahn. "A lot of guys would have tried to jerk a double or clear the bases and pop the ball up in the infield. That has to be five or six sac flies where he just puts the ball in play and selflessly does his job.
"He's approaching 30 RBI now for the year. "
Senior right-hander Trevor Wilcox held the North Stars (16-3, 11-1) scoreless through the first 6 innings and carried a 2-0 lead into the seventh.
Relying on an assortment of off-speed pitches, Wilcox didn't allow a leadoff hitter to reach base until the seventh when Zach Mettetal fisted a soft liner to center.
After a Brenden Norberg single and Sam Faith's sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third, Hahn brought in reliever Matt Simpson.
"Trevor was fantastic - keeping them off-balance," Hahn said of Wilcox, who fanned five. "I think he just ran out of gas a little bit. We didn't doubt for one minute sending him out in the seventh."
Zach Fick's RBI single trimmed the Vikings' lead to 2-1, leaving runners at first and third. After Erik Rabin flied out to short center, Brendan Joyce drove in courtesy runner Jake Chantos on a bad-hop single to tie the game at 2-2.
"That play right there just sucked the wind out of the dugout," admitted Hahn.
However, Simpson worked his way out of the bases-loaded jam - and the Vikings won it an inning later.
"We pressured enough in the seventh and got a fortunate bounce to tie it," said North Stars coach Todd Genke. "But you've got to win the game there and we didn't."
Junior Ryan Litavecz limited the Vikings to two runs on four hits through seven innings.
"This is the first time we've lost here in two years (2014) on this field so we'll have to start another streak tomorrow," said Genke.
With the win, Geneva pulled within two games of first-place St. Charles North with six conference games remaining.
"They still have to play (St. Charles) East and we have to play Batavia so there's still tough baseball to play but this is going to get us ready come playoff time," said Hahn.