Rabin, Goetz power St. Charles North
St. Charles North sophomore Mickey Goetz entered the North Stars’ home game Saturday against cross-town rival St. Charles East with 1 home run in her team’s first 27 games.
Goetz matched that total in the third inning with a 2-run blast to center, then surpassed it a couple innings later when she drove a ball over the fence in left for another 2-run homer.
Her 3-for-3 day with 2 home runs and 4 RBI were the difference in St. Charles North’s 6-4 win over the Saints. St. Charles North maintained its two-game lead over Elgin in the River Division race with just three games to play.
St. Charles North (16-12, 12-4) can clinch a share of the title by beating St. Charles East (18-11, 9-8) on Tuesday and can wrap up the outright championship beating either Larkin or Streamwood next week.
Goetz hit her other home run against Burlington Central.
“She’s been consistent all year,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. “She steadily improves through the course of the season at a new position and at the plate she’s just really consistent. She’s gap-to-gap, she hits the ball hard, she does anything we need.”
Winning pitcher Sabrina Rabin (9-4) allowed 3 earned runs and 6 hits, striking out three and waking none.
She also helped herself at the plate going 2-for-4 with a double, 2 stolen bases and RBI, and she was the runner that scored ahead of Goetz on both home runs.
Rabin also held her leadoff counterpart Lexi Perez hitless in four at-bats.
“I just made sure I hit my spots and made sure our defense was ready because she’s (Perez) definitely a threat,” Rabin said. “Keeping her off was definitely key to keeping us up.”
Goetz hit both home runs off Saints starter Haley Beno. After taking an outside pitch out in her first at-bat, Goetz was ready for Beno’s adjustment the next time.
“My coach said they are going to pitch inside because of my first home run so I was just looking for that and pulled that,” Goetz said. “I was really happy with how we all played.”
Kailee Dressel’s RBI double scored Sara Hausl to put the North Stars ahead 3-0 in the fourth.
Sarah Collalti doubled and Olivia Lorenzini tripled to get the Saints on the board in the fifth, but Rabin bore down and retired three straight to leave Lorenzini stranded at third.
After Goetz put the North Stars ahead 5-1, the Saints pulled within 5-3 on their own 2-run home run, this blast by third baseman Kate Peterburs to center field.
Rabin plated Shannon Caliri with an insurance run in the sixth, then stranded the tying runs on base by retiring pinch hitter Cassie Boles on a soft liner for the final out in the seventh.
“They made a couple more plays than we did,” Saints coach Kelly Horan said. “We’ve got some things to work on and hopefully we’ll have a better showing next time. In the second half of the game I think we relaxed a little bit and took a better approach. That is something we’ll build off of.”
The teams meet again Tuesday, and then the following week they will play in a regional opener. Horan knows two hitters — Goetz and Rabin — they will have to watch.
“We threw it inside, she (Goetz) hit it inside, we threw it outside, she hit the outside one,” Horan said. “We’ll go back and look at our notes and try to come up with a better game plan for her next time. We really have to take care of their No. 1 hitter (Rabin). They are two good players.”
Horan was encouraged with the first appearance in the circle by freshman Alex Latoria. She worked the final 1 2/3 innings striking out two, allowing a pair of singles and stranding two runners in the fifth.
“She’s a freshman and she has been waiting for her opportunity and she has been a fantastic teammate,” Horan said. “We know she wants to pitch. Her role for us right now is offensively. Did she show a lot today? Absolutely. That’s good and as we get ready for the postseason can you have enough pitchers? Absolutely not. Real proud of her effort. She got out of a tough spot. Really good to see.”
The North Stars were glad to see 11 hits — four for extra bases — from their offense after Batavia’s Katie Neubauer held them to 2 singles in their previous game. Caliri (2-for-2) joined Goetz and Rabin with multiple hits, while Collalti and Lorenzini both had 2 hits for the Saints.
“I don’t know what the numbers are but it seems if she (Rabin) gets on to start any inning we find a way to get her across home plate,” Poulin said. “That was big today.”