Baseball: St. Charles North hammers Geneva
The St. Charles North baseball team put the hammer and the Hamer to Geneva in Tuesday's 16-0, five-inning road win.
The unrelenting North Stars amassed 16 hits and left-handed starting pitcher Steve Hamer once again had Geneva's number.
Hamer took part in combined shutouts of the Vikings at both the freshman and sophomore levels the last two seasons. The junior made it a hat trick in his first varsity start against Geneva. He tossed 59 pitches in 4 innings of 2-hit baseball, walked 3 and struck out 4 to win the opener of a 3-game Upstate Eight River series.
"I love facing these kids," Hamer said of the Vikings, who were riding a 6-game winning streak. "I know all these kids. I played travel with their catcher, Josh Rose, and I know a lot of them from baseball or hanging out with friends. I had a ton of confidence. I knew my team had me."
St. Charles North (16-2, 11-1) staked Hamer to a 3-0 lead before he ever threw a pitch. Facing Geneva starting pitcher Noah Davison (4-3) in the top of the first inning, No. 5 hitter Brenden Norberg stroked a 2-run single and senior Conor Bizik's two-out single drove in Tyler Mettetal to hand Hamer (3-1) more cushion than he would need.
Geneva (11-6, 9-3) tried four pitchers but the North onslaught was as unstoppable as the sunset. A day after the North Stars plated 17 runs in a victory over Streamwood, they added a run in the second inning, three more in the third and ended the game early with a 9-run fifth inning, which featured singles by nine players.
Setting the pace were Norberg (3-for-4, 3 RBI) and senior Zach Mettetal (3-for-4, 2 RBI). Leadoff man Anthony Delisi had 2 hits and scored twice, and Sean Nemetz and Tommy Nelsen each had 2 hits and 3 RBI.
"When we're hitting like this we're hitting everything hard," said Norberg, who led off the third inning with a solo home run to left field, "but we're also hitting them in between their fielders. We're hitting them where they're not."
"And we executed perfectly," Zach Mettetal said. "If we had a guy at third (with less than two outs), we drove him in."
What the North Stars did offensively on Tuesday was no aberration. It marked the ninth time in 18 games they've scored at least 10 runs in a game.
"Even the balls they didn't hit hard were falling," Geneva coach Brad Wendell said. "We hit some balls hard early but we hit it right at them and they play good defense. The best part is that we get to play them (Wednesday and Thursday). It's one game. Give them credit for this one and let's play again."
Jeremy Davis and Rose had the only hits for Geneva.
Reliever Christian Erickson pitched a scoreless inning of relief for St. Charles North, which hosts Geneva on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.