St. Charles North stops Glenbard West

Just when you thought the Class 4A Lake Park sectional couldn't get any crazier, along came Wednesday's Glenbard West-St. Charles North semifinal.

The two teams totaled 15 hits, 10 errors, 4 hit batsmen - and 2 illegal pitches for good measure - the North Stars coming out with a 9-4 win in Roselle.

Scorecard pencils kept as busy with this one as on a cross-country game of Sudoku.

"It was scary," St. Charles North leadoff hitter Loren Cihlar said, "because you never knew what was going to happen next. If it was a tight game I don't think we would have made it. Good thing our offense gave us a cushion."

With the top four seeds bowing out in regionals, No. 5 St. Charles North is the highest seed still alive and will play the Glenbard North-Bartlett winner on Saturday for the school's first sectional championship.

"Who would have anticipated that," North Stars coach April Stary said of the upsets. "We know we need to clean up our act before Saturday."

St. Charles North (27-9) came out swinging, Sydney Russell doubling with one out in the first and going to third on Taylor Russell's single. Sydney Russell scored on an error, and Ashley Seering's 2-run single made it 3-0.

Dayle Comerford's RBI single pulled Glenbard West within 3-1, but St. Charles North broke the game open with a 5-run second, sending 10 batters to the plate.

With runners at the corners and a 3-1 game, Glenbard West looked to have Sydney Russell struck out for the inning's second out. But an illegal pitch kept the at-bat alive and brought in a run. When the dust settled on the inning it was 8-1.

"She crow-hopped," Stary said, "and I mentioned it to the umpire before. As soon as you do that it's a ball and the runners move up a base. They got one illegal pitch called on them and we got one. We just took more advantage of it."

Ashley Steinhilber's 2-run homer in the third and an Ericka Lew RBI single in the fifth pulled Glenbard West within 8-4, but the Hilltoppers never got any closer. Glenbard West left 11 runners on base and had a bases-loaded rally in the second snuffed out by an interference call on the bases.

"It could have been very easy for the girls to give up after those first two innings," Hilltoppers coach Mary McGrane said, "but we didn't. We needed that extra hit. We just didn't get it today."

Speedy sophomores Cihlar and Sydney Rusell sparked St. Charles North's attack, reaching base 5 times and scoring 2 runs. Seering and Amanda Ciran both had 2 RBI.

"It's a matter of hitting the ball hard," Sydney Russell said, "and making the defense work. If you keep hitting the ball hard, good things happen."

Jayme Hefler reached base 3 times and Comerford had 2 hits for Glenbard West (22-15), which saw its seven-game win streak snapped after a 1-0 upset of No. 1 seed Elk Grove in regionals.

"I'm proud of where we've come," McGrane said, "and impressed with how we came together. I think we hit our stride at the right time."