Chargers, SCN fall victim to bad weather
Another April shower caused a huge downer.
There certainly was plenty of excitement in the cold air Thursday afternoon as Dundee-Crown traveled to St. Charles North for a non-conference baseball game. After all, last spring Dundee-Crown ended the North Stars' season with a 4-1 victory to capture the Class AA Larkin sectional, the Chargers' first sectional title since 2001.
Unfortunately, as has been the case often this high school baseball season, Mother Nature interfered as a steady downpour cut short Thursday's contest with the North Stars staking right-hander Brian de la Torriente to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning.
No makeup date has been determined.
St. Charles North (2-2) jumped ahead 1-0 in the first on a sacrifice fly off the bat of cleanup hitter Jake Thornton. They added a second run in the third inning when Sam Weinberg scored on shortstop Ryan Richardson's infield single, but the rain continued and the game was postponed.
"This is the worst weather I can remember in terms of loss of games," Dundee-Crown coach Fred Bencriscutto said.
That's saying a lot since Bencriscutto has been coaching the Chargers for 18 years.
It was the ninth postponement for the Chargers this spring.
"The big thing is over spring break we have a lot of varsity/JV doubleheaders and we lost all those JV games," Bencriscutto said. "It makes it real difficult to get a look at all our kids, so the developmental part stops and you end up playing nine, 10 or 11 guys the rest of the season and the JV kids get nothing and that's what really hurts us."
Dundee-Crown is scheduled to play Wheeling today and Hersey on Saturday.
"Today was the worst kind of cancellation because you get on site and start to play and then the game is interrupted," Bencriscutto said. "We have a guy pitch for two-and-a-third innings, throwing a heavy baseball and now he's done for four or five days. It's really been an odd season."
The North Stars were fortunate to play four games during their trip south last week, but the weather continues to get the best of them as well.
"We were fortunate to get in four games down south, we played some very good teams and I saw some things I needed to see," St. Charles North coach Todd Genke said. "I'm pretty happy right now because we've been in the ballgames."
One of the biggest question marks heading into the season for the North Stars concerns their offense. Will the North Stars be able to score enough runs to win consistently?
"We lost a lot of offense from last year so we know we have to do the little things to get better," Genke said. "We're starting to understand how we need to play."
So many hitters rely on rhythm and good habits to translate into proper mechanics and good swings. Unfortunately, a bunch of postponements and not playing several times in the week could make things more difficult on the North Stars as they open play at 7 p.m. tonight against Lyons Township in the Schaumburg Flyers Classic.
"The kids just want to get out and hit so bad," Genke said. "You tell them to stay back but they want to get out on their front side because they're anxious. They just want to get out and see live pitching and another team but everybody is in the same boat."
One constant for the North Stars is pitching and Zach Hirsch will do the throwing tonight.
"Our pitching is going to be strong and will keep us in ballgames," Genke said.
"We'll see what happens. The kids just want to get out there and play. I guess we've just got to pray for some sunshine."