Baseball: St. Charles North stays hot, beats Batavia again

One of the keys to success as a pitcher is the ability to throw first-pitch strikes.

Senior left-hander Nick Skurka followed that formula, getting ahead of 15 of the 22 batters he faced during his solid 6 scoreless innings of work while helping lift St. Charles North (12-1, 8-0) to a 6-1 Upstate Eight Conference River Division baseball victory over Batavia (9-7, 6-5) Wednesday afternoon in St. Charles.

"They always talk about how important first-pitch strikes are," said Skurka, who allowed a pair of singles while walking 2 and striking out 8. "I felt like I did much better than last time when I pitched against Geneva."

Skurka, who raised his record to 3-0, retired the first 8 batters before allowing an infield single to Bulldogs sophomore Quin Urwiler in the third inning.

After Jared Martin walked and a successful double steal advanced the runners to second and third, Skurka avoided any damage with a strikeout.

"He's a competitor," North Stars coach Todd Genke said of Skurka. "He's a kid where when we give him the ball, we know it's going to be a well-pitched game. I thought his velo was up today. I thought his breaking ball was sharp. He kept them off-balance and they can swing the bats.

"He's one of our leaders for a reason and he demonstrated it today against a good hitting team."

St. Charles North grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first on Justin Dunne's 2-out RBI single but was kept off the scoreboard for the next 3 innings against Batavia junior right-hander Dylan Schick.

"Their kid pitched pretty well, too," said Genke. "I felt like we left a small army on the bases (6 through the first 4 innings). We've got to come through with some tough hits but with the wind blowing in, it's not an easy day to hit."

The North Stars erupted for 3 runs in the fifth. Dunne reached on a dropped third strike as teammate Tommy Nelsen raced home to make it 2-0.

Two batters later, senior Erik Larson's infield single drove in Steven Hamer (2-for-3, 2 RBI, 2 RS) and a throwing error allowed Dunne to score the North Stars' fourth run.

"Getting those three runs in the fifth was big," said Genke. "I felt like it kind of changed the momentum back into our dugout."

St. Charles North tacked on 2 more insurance runs in the sixth on back-to-back RBI singles from Hamer and Dunne (2-for-4, 2 RBI).

Batavia pushed across a run in the seventh but left the bases loaded with 1 out as North Stars reliever Grant Belich retired the only 2 batters he faced to pick up the save.

"Giving up a couple (runs) in the bottom of the sixth really hurt us," said Bulldogs coach Alex Beckmann. "It's much different being a 4-0 game."

Schick gave up 4 runs on 6 hits in 4⅓ innings of work.

"He did an outstanding job," Beckmann said of his starter.

The 3-game series concludes Thursday in Batavia.

"It should be another good one tomorrow," said Beckmann. "We're right there - that's the frustrating part."