Baseball: St. Charles East sweeps SCN to win UEC River
Coming into the 3-game series, St. Charles East's baseball team was hoping to end its 3-year losing streak against cross-town rival St. Charles North.
After taking the first two games of the series by identical 3-2 scores, the Saints (21-8-1) were looking for a little bit more Thursday night at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva.
They did exactly that, clinching the Upstate Eight Conference River Division championship with a come-from-behind, 6-2 victory over the North Stars (23-5).
"We won it outright tonight because the crossovers were thrown out due to all of the canceled games earlier in the season," said Saints coach Len Asquini, whose team stretched its winning streak to 9. "We did it the hard way."
St. Charles North grabbed a 2-0 lead in the third on RBI singles from Nick DeMarco and Justin Dunne.
"We wanted to get the lead tonight and we did," said North Stars coach Todd Genke.
St. Charles East closed the gap to 2-1 with a fourth-inning run courtesy of Thomas Schroeder's sacrifice fly before taking the lead for good with a pair of runs in the fifth. John DelloStritto's sacrifice fly brought in courtesy runner Robert Carne to tie the game at 2-2 before a throwing error on a double steal attempt led to the go-ahead run.
"We struggled in the series defensively," said Genke, whose team committed 3 errors.
The Saints added 3 insurance tallies in the seventh, highlighted by freshman Kyle Hayes' 2-run single with the bases loaded.
Senior right-hander Jeremy Cox (7-2), who threw 34 pressure pitches while picking up the save in the opening game of the series, turned in another superb performance in the starter's role Thursday night.
Cox went 6-plus innings, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits with 1 walk and 6 strikeouts.
"I was glad I had the opportunity in the first game and that I had to come out here and do so again in the third game," said Cox.
"He threw great," Asquini said of Cox. "He stayed calm and cool and attacked the zone. That was beautiful to see."
The Saints also flashed some leather in the field with an errorless performance that included Pat Griffin's spectacular diving catch on a line drive to left-center to lead off the bottom of the first, Schroeder's spin-and-throw on a play to his left to open the second, Jack Jordan's scoop at first base and Charlie Charpentier's running grab of a fly ball near the bullpen in the fourth.
"We were awesome defensively," said Cox. "It was great to have that trust in everyone behind me."
Second baseman Clay Conn alertly picked up a ball that caromed off Jordan's leg at first and threw out a North Stars runner trying to advance to third for the third out in the sixth.
"Jack did a great job keeping it in (in the infield) and I picked it up and threw it over there (to third)," said Conn. "It was a little off to the left and Thomas made a great tag."
Senior Drew Conn came on with a runner at first and nobody out in the seventh to record the save - and the Saints rushed out of the dugout to celebrate the team's first sweep of the North Stars since 2014.
"It was a wonderful day for us," said Asquini.