North Stars sail into uncharted territory
The summer is going so well for the St. Charles North baseball team that even an hour rain delay can be considered a positive.
That's the situation the North Stars found themselves in Wednesday waiting to play St. Charles East in the semifinals of the IHSBCA summer regional at St. Charles East.
Not even a little rain could get the North Stars down. Instead, they used the down time to build team chemistry, then once on the field, St. Charles North avenged a loss to the Saints earlier this summer with a convincing 11-1 win in six innings.
"We are really riled up and ready to play," said catcher Matt Stevens. "During the rain delay we kind of just jelled, relaxed before the game. I thought that was pretty important."
Andrew Elliott's 2-run single in the last of the sixth ended the game early and advanced the red-hot North Stars (18-7) into today's regional championship game at 4 p.m. against No. 1 seed Waubonsie Valley (27-14) at St. Charles East.
The only other time the North Stars have gone this far in the summer tournament came in 2003 when they lost to Elk Grove in the regional finals.
"We're coming to unchartered waters," North Stars coach Todd Genke said. "Coming over here is always tough. It's a great rivalry to be part of. These are big games. You lose you are done. We have ended three teams' seasons for the summer and it feels good we are still playing."
North Stars starter Phil Warner (4-0), a left-handed junior, blanked the Saints through the first four innings. That gave his teammates plenty of time to jump on the Saints and their own southpaw, Wes Benjamin.
Kevin Borst singled leading off the second and took third on a ground-rule double by Chase Williams. Dirk Schmitt's single scored both runners and gave the North Stars a 2-0 lead.
St. Charles North extended the lead to 5-0 in the third, helped by a hit batter and two walks that loaded the bases with two outs. Williams came through again with a single to left, scoring two. Borst then stole third and scored on a throwing error for the fifth run.
Eight of the North Star starters had at least 1 hit.
"We had a lot of great at-bats up and down the lineup one through nine," Nebraska-bound shortstop Ryan Richardson said.
Johnathan Erickson's sacrifice fly scored Drew Vazquez in the fifth, but the North Stars escaped further damage when Ryan Jones relieved Warner and induced a 4-6-3 double play from David Gow to Richardson to Mike Budka.
The North Stars broke open the 5-1 game with 3 runs in both the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, Stevens and Borst slammed home runs on back-to-back pitches, the third for each this summer.
"Pitching and defense wins but it's nice to score 11 runs," Genke said.
The Saints ended their summer at 13-6, and new coach Dave Haskins came away impressed, especially with the team's depth on the mound and strength up the middle.
"We put a lot of things together that are positive," Haskins said. "It was a very good observation when it comes to our players, what they can do, what our strengths and weaknesses are. I like were we are headed going into the spring."