Baseball: St. Charles North uses Geneva error to pull out win

Egon Hein had every intention of being patient at the plate for St. Charles North in the bottom of the seventh inning Tuesday afternoon.

"We're playing catch-up the whole game," Hein said after Geneva booted his bases-loaded infield grounder, enabling two runners to score in the North Stars' Upstate Eight River baseball opener in St. Charles. "I'm waiting to see a strike."

The North Stars' Nick DeMarco and pinch-runner Grant Belich scored on the Vikings' infield misplay for an improbable 5-4 walk-off victory.

The schools were playing their first game in a combined 25 days due to the inclement weather that has plagued the outdoor spring sports schedule.

Geneva (2-5, 0-1) entered the fateful seventh with a 4-3 lead as starter Ian Hanson and reliever Tyler Venditti allowed a mere hit each.

But Cullen Geary, the Vikings' closer, could not find his location to start the seventh, issuing three consecutive free passes.

"Our kids on the mound competed," Geneva coach Brad Wendell said. "When we get in trouble we don't find the (strike) zone."

"It's a very typical Geneva-St. Charles North baseball game," North coach Todd Genke said. "These are the types of games you have to win to win a (conference) championship."

The North Stars (5-1, 1-0) are the four-time reigning champion in the River.

But it was Geneva who made the first major statement of the game.

Steve Hamer staked the North Stars to a 1-0 lead with a run-scoring single in the first.

Four of the Vikings' 6 hits were doubles, and extra-base hits by Nathan Dewey and Hanson were instrumental to Geneva taking a 3-1 lead in its half of the third.

Nick Black delivered the key hit - a 2-run single the opposite way - for Geneva in the inning.

Dewey added his second double to lead off the fifth, but the Vikings' junior was stranded at third in what proved to be a positive omen for St. Charles North.

DeMarco had the North Stars' only other hit in the fifth; the game would soon be tied for a second time at 3-3 on a Hein sacrifice fly and aggressive maneuver by St. Charles North reserve sparkplug Michael Gattuso.

"I'm primarily a courtesy runner," Gattuso said. "I have to make things happen on the bases."

Gattuso knotted the game on the back side of a double steal.

"That was a big part of the game," Genke said.

Garrett Bragg restored the Vikings' precarious lead with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly, but Lucas Heflen closed out the side to earn his first pitching decision for St. Charles North.