Baseball: St. Charles North rolls by Streamwood
The North Stars didn't hit a lot, but they didn't need to.
St. Charles North's baseball team got just 6 hits Thursday, but it took advantage of 10 walks, 2 hit batters, and 4 errors by Streamwood to post a 12-0, 5-inning, Upstate Eight win.
The game was a Streamwood home game but was moved to St. Charles.
Steve Hamer pitched 4 shutout innings for the win, striking out 8. Leadoff man Ryan Thiesse had 2 doubles, 2 walks, and scored 4 times. Nick DeMarco had 2 hits and drove in 3 runs for the North Stars (7-1, 3-0).
Just getting a game in was a triumph of sorts for both teams.
"We've tried to do as much as we can indoors," said St. Charles coach Todd Genke. "Their focus has been sharp, and we leave practice every day saying, 'We're going to play tomorrow.' We've tried to be very creative just to keep them ready. But they came ready to play today. I was curious to see how they would come out."
The North Stars did come out ready to go, scoring twice in the first inning without a hit. Thiesse and Pat Bellock drew walks to start the game. They executed a double steal, with Thiesse stealing home. Bellock scored on Tommy Nelson's sacrifice fly.
"It's great to play, finally," Thiesse said. "We've all been waiting for it and it's finally just here. It stunk to miss all those games, but now we're finally playing."
"They canceled nine games in a row," said Hamer. "I just looked at our calendar and we're already halfway through the season. We've only got four weeks left and it's going by way too fast without playing any games."
SCN added 4 more in the third. Thiesse's double to center got it started and DeMarco's 2-run single capped the scoring. Another Thiesse double started another rally in the fourth.
The North Stars put the game away with another 4-run rally in the fifth. DeMarco, pinch-hitter Tyler Brazel, and Hamer all drove in runs during the inning.
It was not how Streamwood wanted to come out of the blocks following a lengthy weather-related break.
"You're obviously not going to win too many games when you walk 10 guys, hit two, and then I think we had three or four errors," said Streamwood coach Ryan Lasota. "You can't give a team like that that many freebases. I think they had six hits. Twelve runs on six hits is not good. Just too many freebases today."
The Sabres mustered just 2 hits. Both came in the third inning, when Jared Oliver and Max Alanis singled, giving the Sabres two runners on with just 1 out. But Hamer retired Cody Motykowski and AJ Reyna to get out of it.
Grant Belich pitched the fifth for St. Charles. He worked around 2 errors to preserve the shutout.