St. Charles E. wins outright River title

Literally and figuratively, Kyle Manske took one for the team Thursday night.

In the top of the first inning, the St. Charles East senior left-hander was struck just below the left side of his chest by a vicious line drive off the bat of St. Charles North's Jake Johansmeier.

Remarkably, Manske still remained on the mound 6 innings later, and he induced Johansmeier to hit a game-ending grounder on his 118th pitch of the game to shortstop Nicholas Erickson, who tossed the ball to second baseman Jordan Hayes for the final out of the Saints' 6-2 Upstate Eight Conference River Division title-clinching victory over the North Stars (23-11, 17-8) at Fifth Third Ballpark in Geneva.

While there were many heroes for the Saints (21-10, 19-6), no one stood taller than Manske, who displayed a round red welt near his upper rib cage for his efforts.

"I almost jumped out of my skin," said Manske, who fell to the ground after absorbing the line shot before fielding the ball heading toward first base and flipping it to Johnny Hondlik for the third out of the first inning.

"I knew I had to get back up and try and get that guy out," said Manske.

Then he collapsed to the turf for a few scary moments, as Saints trainer Chuck Harrier and head coach Len Asquini rushed to his aid.

"I'm amazed that he took that ball off the chest in the first inning," North Stars coach Todd Genke said of Manske (7-1). "When he collapsed out there between first and second, I thought we might be calling 911. I give him a ton of credit because that showed a tremendous amount of will."

"We weren't sure he'd go back out there but he manned up, got back out there and threw a really, really nice ballgame," said Asquini, who had relievers Matt Starai and Troy Dykhuis warming up between the first and second innings in case Manske was unable to return.

St. Charles East grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second inning.

Johansmeier (4-3) plunked Luke Ludke with a pitch to start the frame before Troy DeFilippis stroked an RBI triple down the first-base line. Two batters later, a passed ball on a suicide squeeze attempt allowed DeFilippis to come home with the second run of the inning.

In the fifth, Jordan Hayes reached on a 1-out double and Joe Hoscheit was walked intentionally to set the stage for Hondlik, who ripped a first-pitch slider down the third-base line for a 2-run double to extend the Saints' lead to 4-0.

"Teams have been doing that to Joe (Hoscheit) all year," said Hondlik, who went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles. "When I see it happen, I just try to make them pay."

"That two-run double really hurt," admitted Genke. "We tried to set up the double play, and first pitch somehow he's looking breaking ball and he hit the ball right down the line."

The North Stars pulled within 4-2 with a pair of sixth-inning runs, highlighted by John Brodner's run-scoring double and Erik Nelson's 2-out RBI single.

But the Saints scored a pair of insurance runs in their half of the sixth off reliever Cory Wright.

Nathan Sharko reached on a 2-out single before Erickson crushed an RBI triple over the head of North center fielder Brandon Drawant. Erickson also crossed the plate on the play when the relay throw sailed to the backstop.

"I thought our approaches at the plate were excellent today," said Asquini, whose team will host a Class 4A regional tournament next week.

Brodner and Jake Smiley each had a pair of hits for the North Stars, who head to the York regional.

"We battled all the way down to the last game to decide a (conference) champion and unfortunately we came up a little short," said Genke. "It's hard to put into words how it feels."

Manske will gladly take the win despite feeling some pain.

"I was telling my dad before I came here that this has got to be the biggest game of my career so far," said Manske, who also got the win during last year's conference title-sharing victory over St. Charles North.