St. Charles N. tips Bartlett in 7th
Like a mad scientist, St. Charles North’s baseball team has concocted a winning formula lately that makes hair stand on end.
It’s called the seventh-inning comeback.
Four days after scoring 3 seventh-inning runs to edge Lake Park 5-4, the North Stars (5-4, 3-0) staged another late rally, plating a pair of runs in their last at-bat during Monday’s 5-4 Upstate Eight Conference victory over Bartlett (6-6, 2-2) in St. Charles.
John Brodner’s 1-out sacrifice fly to center brought home Kurt Barbeau with the tying run, and 2 pitches later, junior catcher Ryan Thomas lashed a single down the left-field line, driving in Brandon Drawant from second with the game-winning run and setting off a celebratory scene near third base.
“It’s something special,” admitted Thomas, who had 3 of the North Stars’ 7 base hits. “We definitely have confidence. In the seventh, we have that thought in the back of our heads like, ‘we’ve done this before and we can do it again.’”
While the North Stars committed 3 errors and failed to bunt a runner over to second on 2 different occasions in the late innings, coach Todd Genke was pleased with his team’s resilience down the stretch.
“It’s the second game in a row, in a conference game against a quality opponent,” said Genke. “It’s a sign of a good team when you’ve got kids who don’t quit.”
Barbeau led off the seventh with a bad-hop single over the head of Hawks second baseman Ryan Karrick. With 1 out, junior reliever Justin Blanchett (0-2) hit Drawant with a pitch to put runners on first and second. After Blanchett threw 3 straight balls to Jake Smiley, Hawks coach Chris Pemberton called upon Tim McKeague, whose first pitch was out of the strike zone, loading the bases for Brodner.
“Tim’s thrown the last couple games so we wanted to go in a different direction with Justin,” said Pemberton. “It’s tough because they’re both juniors who have pitched in some high tension spots.
“They’re learning from these experiences. It’s good preparation. It’s no fun to lose now but we’re preparing for down the road.”
Genke wasn’t surprised that clean-up hitter Thomas came through in the clutch.
“He’s really been hitting the ball hard,” said Genke. “Even his outs have been hard outs. We’ve kind of been messing around with the middle of the order moving guys around. Ryan seems like a kid who doesn’t mind being in the 4-hole.”
After the Hawks took a 1-0 lead on Dan Gallanis’ first-inning RBI double, the North Stars answered in the second on Carl Formento’s 2-run home run that cleared the high fence in left-center. It was St. Charles North’s first home run of the season.
Bartlett tied the score at 2-2 in the fifth when Ben Grear’s suicide squeeze bunt brought home Karrick, who had singled and took third on Robert Smith’s double.
Drawant’s 2-out RBI single knotted the score in the bottom half of the frame before the Hawks scored an unearned run in the sixth to go back on top 4-3.
Bartlett junior starter Colin Nowak struck out 10 while giving up 3 runs in a 6-inning, 113-pitch outing, while Max Pedre worked the first 4 1/3 innings for the North Stars before giving way to Sawyer Chambers and eventual winning pitcher Collin Peterson (1-0).
“We’ve been in some tight games, quite a few already, and I think that’s the way it’s going to remain,” said Genke. “These are the kind of games we’re going to be in.”