Baseball: St. Charles North pulls away from Streamwood
The St. Charles North baseball team's talent and experience kept a bad half inning from spiraling into something worse in Wednesday's 12-2, six-inning playoff victory over Streamwood.
The top-seeded North Stars fell behind 2-0 against No. 16 Streamwood in the first inning of a Class 4A regional semifinal they hosted, mainly because they committed 3 errors through the first seven batters faced by starting pitcher Ryan Litavecz (8-1).
However, the veteran-laden North Stars, the third-place team in Class 4A in 2016, answered with 4 runs in the bottom of the first inning, added 2 more in the fifth and finished off the Sabres (16-15) with a 6-run sixth.
"It's not really that common for us to start off slow like that, but I think we handled it really great," said St. Charles North senior first baseman Conor Bizik, who went 2-for-4 and drove in 2 runs.
St. Charles North (29-4) advances to the regional final on Saturday at 10 a.m. against the winner of Thursday's semifinal between No. 7 Wheaton North (15-17) and No. 9 Glenbard North (13-19).
St. Charles North coach Todd Genke would like to see his players get off to a better start in the final than they did against Streamwood.
"We played about as poorly as we could play in the first inning," Genke said. "Sometimes you don't know; Is that an aberration? Is it a fluke? Were we not ready to play? Who knows? But I told the guys I was proud that they didn't panic. There was no panic. It was kind of like OK, let's go. Next play, next pitch."
The final score didn't do justice to how well Streamwood played behind the effort of gutty pitcher Adam Sojda, a senior affectionately nicknamed "Gramps" because he has been slowed by hip, back and arm injuries this season. "I have a lot of body issues," Sojda said. "My back, just everything."
Making his final start as a competitive baseball player before moving to California to study at a junior college, Sojda (2-1) gave the Sabres a fighting chance. A 6-game winner as a junior, the right-hander kept Streamwood within 2 runs of a team that bats .361 collectively until the fifth inning.
"It's tough. They can hit it anywhere, wherever you throw it," Sojda said. "I was locating well and then I'd leave one up and they'd capitalize on it."
The North Stars twice quelled Streamwood uprisings when Genke turned to his bullpen. Steve Hamer entered in the top of the fourth with a runner on base and struck out the next two men he faced.
Senior Jason Shanner took the mound in the sixth inning with two on and one out. He promptly struck out Streamwood leadoff man Jesse Rico, one of the Upstate Eight Conference's top hitters. He then struck out Sojda to escape.
"We're hitting real well right now and our pitching's been good so we're just looking forward to Saturday," Shanner said.
Though disappointed by the season-ending loss, Streamwood coach Ryan LaSota credited his players for improving from a 9-win team in 2016 to above .500 this spring.
"It was a great senior-led team," LaSota said. "It was a great season for us. It was definitely a step in the right direction compared to where we've been."
Junior Colin Caminitti had 2 of the Sabres' 6 hits.
St. Charles North finished with 17 hits, led by Zach Mettetal (3-for-4, double), Sean Krueger (2-for-3, 2 RBI), Sam Faith (2-for-4, RBI), Brenden Norberg (2-for-3, 2 RBI) and Tommy Nelsen (2-for-3, double, RBI).