Baseball: Batavia hands St. Charles North 1st UEC loss

Jared Martin had already made the defensive play of the game from his shortstop position.

But the Batavia senior was only getting warmed up for the central offensive moment in the Bulldogs' 7-4 victory over St. Charles North in Upstate Eight River baseball action Thursday afternoon.

Martin delivered Joseph Sartain and Blake Carlson - both of whom had been hit by pitches to reach base - with a bases-loaded single with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning in Batavia.

The 2-run single between third and short capped a 4-run Batavia rally that enabled the Bulldogs to end the North Stars' 10-game winning streak.

Batavia (10-7, 7-5) is Illinois' first team to defeat the North Stars (12-2, 8-1) this spring.

"Bases loaded, I was just trying put something in play," Martin said. "I wanted to give my team a chance to win. We came close the last couple of days and finally did it today. Every year our goal is to beat them."

The Bulldogs drew to within 4-3 when Sartain was plunked with the bases loaded.

Jack Haefer knotted the game at 4-4 with a single to right as the ensuing batter for Batavia to set the stage for Martin.

"The first two games of the series the script was kind of flipped there," Batavia coach Alex Beckmann said. "They made us pay for some mistakes."

St. Charles North coach Todd Genke had a similar outlook of the two free passes that doomed the North Stars' winning streak.

"It changed the complexion of the game," Genke said of Sartain being hit by a pitch from the North Stars' reliever of starter Tristan Cazel. "We've got some charity on our end offensively. We had (Sartain) 0-2 and then hit him. You've got to put a batter away when you have two strikes."

Jack Meyers was instrumental in maintaining the Bulldogs' 2-run lead in the North Stars' sixth.

The junior reliever inherited runners at the corners and none out.

But - following a controversial ruling of Sean Nemetz being out of the box on an apparent bunt single - Meyers retired Nick DeMarco and Ryan Thiesse without issue.

"Caught a little break with the bunt call there," Meyers said. "I just had to focus on throwing strikes. I knew I had a good defense behind me."

St. Charles North plated a pair each in the second and third innings to take a 4-1 lead.

Martin had another two-out single, though, in the Bulldogs' fourth to bring Batavia to within 4-2.

Andrew Iutzwig had his first decision in earning the win for Batavia.

"We still left way too many guys (eight) on base," Genke said.