Wheaton North 5, St. Charles N. 2

Jack DeAno, a starting pitcher on Wheaton North's baseball team, is a competitor.

The junior right-hander is 7-1 this year for a reason. That's why Falcons coach Dan Schoessling decided to use him on the mound against St. Charles North in the Class 4A Larkin sectional semifinal.

It paid off, as DeAno started off on fire and finished with 5 strikeouts, 2 walks and 5 hits in Wheaton North's 5-2 win over the North Stars Thursday in Elgin.

"When you have a big game, you want someone on the mound who wants to compete, and he's one of the best competitors we've ever had," Schoessling said. "He refused to lose this game."

"We never give up," added DeAno, who is also the Falcons' leadoff man. "We are always positive. No one gets down."

With the win, the Falcons (22-13) will play Schaumburg for the sectional title Saturday. The North Stars ended their season 23-12.

DeAno had a pitcher's duel going with St. Charles North's lefty, Danny Jimenez. Both did not allow a run in the first three innings.

Wheaton North changed that when Trey Martin hit a double with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning. He moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a North Star error.

St. Charles North, however, fired back with Matt Stevens' solo home run that led off the fifth inning. In that inning, the North Stars posted 3 of their hits and left a pair of baserunners stranded.

Then came the fifth inning, when Jimenez reached his pitch count and another southpaw, Zach Hirsch, came in the game.

Hirsch ended up striking out the first two batters of the inning, Ryan Javech and Travis Otto, but both ended up on base on back-to-back dropped third strikes. Javech ended up scoring on an RBI double from Wade Cervenka and Otto's pinch runner, Brett Kirchhofer, came home on an RBI single from Aric Dama. Cervenka pushed the score at 4-1 when he crossed home as the North Stars turned a double play.

"We got a little lucky there, but that's baseball," DeAno said. "They made mistakes and we capitalized on it."

Wheaton North added another run in the sixth when DeAno reached first on another dropped third strike, got to third on a North Stars throwing error and scored on Matt Palackdharry's RBI single.

Mike Butka led the seventh inning off with another solo home run for the North Stars, but DeAno retired the next three batters to end the game.

"I thought we'd come out and play better," St. Charles North coach Todd Genke said. "I'm really proud of them. Hopefully, our young kids learned from this."

Jimenez, who might get drafted in this year's MLB draft, picked up the no-decision while Hirsch took the tough loss and dropped to 5-4. They combined for 10 strikeouts, 3 walks and 7 hits.

Every player in Wheaton North's lineup reached base at least once. The Falcons left 5 stranded in the first three innings before breaking through in the fourth.

The North Stars finished with 3 errors -- all in the final three innings.

"It was a weird game," Schoessling said. "In some of the innings, I felt we should have scored, but didn't. We got a few breaks and pushed across some runs…we had situations where we took advantage and did a good job with that."

The Falcons are ready for Schaumburg, the No. 1 seed.

"They are the No. 1 seed for a reason (but) we feel confident with the way we are playing," Schoessling said. "We feel good going in."