Baseball: St. Charles North clubs its way past Batavia
Just go with it.
That was St. Charles North No. 5 hitter Brenden Norberg's philosophy on hitting the outside pitch against Batavia in Friday's 13-3 Upstate Eight River, seven-inning road win.
After cleanup man Sam Faith made it 1-0 in the first inning with a run-scoring, ground-rule double that hopped the center-field fence, Norberg stepped to the plate. The right-handed hitter committed to Benedictine University lined an outside fastball from Batavia right-handed starting pitcher Steven Wilson to right field for a single, scoring Tyler Mettetal for a 2-0 lead.
Norberg and the North Stars kept the hits coming. The senior right fielder finished 3-for-4 with a double, a walk and 3 RBI and St. Charles North (13-2, 8-1) collected 11 hits against Batavia (3-8, 2-7) to complete the 3-game sweep.
"I've been slumping the last couple of games but today I was seeing the ball well and using the opposite side of the field," said Norberg, who in St. Charles North's 4 wins earlier in the week went 2-for-6 with a walk. "He was putting them on the outside part of the plate. Just go with it."
There were plenty of hitting stars for the North Stars. Missouri State-bound Faith finished 2-for-4 with a double and 3 RBI, leadoff man Anthony Delisi went 2-for-5 with 2 RBI and scored twice, Memphis commit Zach Mettetal (RBI) had 2 hits in 4 at-bats and scored 3 runs and South Carolina-bound Tyler Mettetal tripled, drew 3 walks and scored twice.
The North Stars scored 4 runs in the first inning and 5 in the seventh to send the Bulldogs to their fifth loss in as many days.
"Anytime you can go on the road and score first, especially a 4-spot, that puts them on their heels a little bit," St. Charles North coach Todd Genke said. "And we know they've had a tough week, but we weren't about to come over and expect them to lay down for us. We know they're going to fight. I'm proud of the way we came over. It's been a long week for us, too."
The Bulldogs' 4 errors didn't help their circumstance.
"We have to eliminate that big inning, especially against a good team like that," Batavia coach Alex Beckmann said. "They'll hammer you if you make mistakes and they definitely showed that today."
Junior left-hander Nick Skurka (2-0) used an assortment of fastballs, curves and a sinking palmball change to hold the Bulldogs to 3 runs (1 earned) on 7 hits in 4⅔ innings. He struck out 5 with 1 walk in his second varsity start.
"I liked how we got ahead early and padded (the lead) so I could just throw strikes," Skurka said. "I kind of struggled in the middle, but then I just stopped thinking about it. First-pitch strikes is really all that matters for me."
St. Charles North reliever Ryan Pieczko induced a fly out to strand two inherited runners in the fifth inning and preserve an 8-3 lead. Future Wisconsin-Whitewater pitcher Westin Muir closed things out with 2 hitless innings in which he fanned 4.
Quinn O'Brien (RBI) was responsible for 2 of the Bulldogs' 7 hits, all singles.