Touching all bases on a rainy night
Those rainstorms caused havoc with the local sports scene Friday. Check back Sunday for coverage of everything we had hoped to have in today's paper, especially the outstanding collection of girls track talent at Geneva, Batavia, West Aurora and St. Charles East that will be competing for state at the Streamwood and Plainfield Central sectionals.
In the meantime, here's a few odds and ends from another week on the area softball and baseball diamonds, one that saw the Batavia and Marmion baseball teams take control of the Western Sun and Suburban Catholic, respectively, and the St. Charles East and St. Charles North softball teams continued to separate themselves from the other contenders in the Upstate Eight.
These girls can pitch: It's not exactly breaking news, but another look at the area baseball and softball leaders show once again that high school baseball is the Arena Football League to high school softball's NFL.
The adage might be "there's nothing harder to do in sports than hit a baseball," but all those who say that probably need to try to hit a softball.
Check out those area leaders. While 15 baseball players are batting .400 this year, only three softball players are.
"It's (softball) so much more of a pitcher-dominated game," Geneva softball coach Greg Dierks said. "There are some that can do it but certainly not as many. It's the quality of pitching. Night in and night out you see good pitching."
Dierks said he's only seen the level of pitching improve in his tenure with the Vikings.
"Used to be a few brilliant pitchers, then a lot of average and a few weak ones," Dierks said. "The transition has been made in the other direction where most teams have pitchers who are good enough to shut you down when they are on. More consistently throw at a higher speed."
Dierks said even the occasional talk about moving the pitcher's mound back wouldn't necessarily provide more offense.
"They talk sometimes about moving the pitching mound back to college (distance), three feet," Dierks said. "I don't know if it's going to help the hitters that much. It will help a little maybe but the only reason to do it I see is for the pitcher. They think it will add more offense but I don't know. The pitches are going to move a little bit more. It's not like we are going to have 7-6 games all the time. I think it will be a marginal difference in scoring but maybe a little more of a difference in the safety for a pitcher."
Turnaround time: From 15-15 a year ago, St. Charles East's softball team certainly is one of the best stories of the year at 19-6, 12-2 in the Upstate Eight and tied for first with St. Charles North.
Circle next Wednesday on your calendar, when the Saints welcome the North Stars. Both teams have several other key Upstate Eight games left, but none will be bigger than their cross-town battle. St. Charles North won the first meeting, 6-4.
The Saints certainly have fit well with their first-year coach Kelly Barnett.
"She wants us to bring our A game, bring energy," senior captain Rebbeca Reinbold said. "She knows what she has with us.
"We've been working really hard in practice. Every single one of us contributes."
Gabby Moe improved to 13-2 by coming in relief to beat Neuqua Valley Thursday.
"We're coming up from the bottom," Moe said. "Nobody thought of us as that big of a challenge. It's our own Cinderella story."
The Saints aren't the only team to turn it around. Leon Pedraza's Batavia squad went 9-19 last year.
After blanking Rochelle 2-0 Thursday, the Bulldogs are 14-10 overall, 8-3 in the Western Sun.
Monday's game at Glenbard South and Thursday's visit from Kaneland will go a long way to deciding Batavia's conference championship hopes.
Just like Lou: St. Charles North manager Todd Genke compared himself to Cubs skipper Lou Piniella recently after Genke also switched his lineup around to get his offense going.
Genke dropped leadoff hitter Colin O'Carroll from the leadoff spot to No. 3 in his order.
"I'm trying to shuffle the lineup a little, I'm trying to pull a Lou Piniella, do something, move some guys around a little," Genke explained.
"Colin has been one of our most consistent hitters. Although he has done great at leadoff I thought I could slide him down a little, give him a couple RBI chances. I told him, it's not where you hit in the lineup, it's when you hit."
The North Stars had the third game of their series with St. Charles East rained out Friday, the second time it has been washed out. They will try again May 22.
The rain also pushed back Kaneland and Batavia's game to Monday, which also unfortunately means the Bulldogs' matchup against Marmion - two teams having great seasons and matching Cadets coach Dave Rakow against his alma mater - has been canceled.
jlemon@dailyherald.com