Only weather slows SCN's Hirsch

At the top of the St. Charles North baseball team's dugout, there's one motivational quote after another from the likes of Knute Rockne, Vince Lombardi, Reggie Jackson and Yogi Berra.

With the way this season has gone, maybe it's time to add a meteorologist with those sports legends. Perhaps Tom Skilling or Willard Scott.

So right next to Lombardi's: "The harder you work for it, the harder it is to surrender," you can read: "With our April and May weather in Illinois, Playing spring baseball takes a lot and lot of patience."

The North Stars (20-7, 15-5) had yet another game suspended Tuesday -- their fifth in the Upstate Eight alone -- with a 2-0 lead over South Elgin (11-11, 11-11) heading to the top of the fifth inning.

"The weather has been very difficult on everybody this year," St. Charles North coach Todd Genke said. "I can't remember a year when we've had so many suspended games. It's a strain on your pitching staff for sure."

The game will be completed after the regularly scheduled South Elgin-St. Charles North matchup Thursday in St. Charles.

"I know the rules," Genke laughed. "We're getting good at that."

Play was halted at 5:25 p.m. when lightning was spotted. The teams waited until 6:10 before suspending the game.

At the rate St. Charles North Zach Hirsch worked through the first four innings, the game might have been over before 6:10.

The junior left-hander threw just 49 pitches in the four innings, allowing no hits, no walks and striking out four. The only baserunner he allowed came on a two-out error in the third.

"That's the way to get on the mound, getting it and throwing strikes and all of a sudden you (the batter) start feeling pressure," South Elgin coach Jim Kating said.

"Anytime you have a pitcher throwing strikes, and he's getting three pitches over, now when he makes a mistake you better take advantage of it or you might not see anything good to hit."

South Elgin's Josh Myers matched Hirsch (4-2) through three scoreless innings.

Myers struck out three in those three innings and allowed only a Jake Thornton single. His center fielder Matt Wright made a pair of nice grabs in the third inning.

The North Stars used a patient approach in the fourth while Myers labored through a 34-pitch inning. Ryan Richardson and Brian de la Torriente drew walks to start the rally.

"I thought he threw some pretty good pitches that didn't go in our favor," Kating said. "He had been around the plate the whole game and I thought he deserved some of those things."

With runners at second and third and two outs, sophomore catcher Matt Stevens battled through an 8-pitch at-bat before driving a ball back through the middle for a 2-run single. With the count at 2-2, Stevens fouled off two pitches before finding one he could handle.

"I don't look at him as a sophomore anymore," Genke said. "He's an impressive kid. He's come up with some big hits for us. He's going to be fun to coach for the next couple years."

Brandon Nothnagel followed by lining out on a hard-hit ball to center, which wound up being the last batter of the game.

The North Stars are all too familiar with the suspended game. They just finished a suspended game against Waubonsie Valley Monday that didn't end until 7:45 p.m.

"It's been a long couple days for the kids and coaches," Genke said.

St. Charles North also has a game to complete against Neuqua Valley. The North Stars will only make that up if it factors in the Upstate Eight race.

Right now, that's not looking too promising after the Wildcats beat Bartlett 7-0 Tuesday. The North Stars need Bartlett to win the final two games from Neuqua Valley while St. Charles North sweeps three from South Elgin.

Regardless of how the Upstate Eight race plays out, Genke is glad to see his team playing better baseball heading into next week's Class 4A Elk Grove regional.

"You want to be hot at the right time," Genke said. "We want to be playing our best baseball in the regional. I think we have been playing much better team baseball. And we've had some guys who weren't hitting early on who are now hitting. That always help because I think our pitching, hopefully, will always be there."

Thornton, who has raised his average nearly 200 points, is one of the players heating up. Genke also pointed to K.C. Wright, De la Torriente, Colin O'Carroll and Kevin Borst as some of the North Stars swinging better.

Genke is looking for a boost from first baseman Mike Budka, who was called up last week after hitting over .500 for the sophomore team.

"He (Budka) just attacks the ball," Genke said. "He's going to help us down the stretch.

"Hitting is contagious. They see some kids come up with a good approach and hit the ball hard and all of a sudden they can do it too. It's funny how it works. We've seen very good pitching and that's going to help us."