Mettetal mows down St. Charles East

Tyler Mettetal admittedly felt some butterflies before taking the mound Wednesday afternoon.

For good reason.

The St. Charles North sophomore was preparing to pitch against crosstown rival St. Charles East for the first time on the varsity level.

Mettetal, a left-hander, gained confidence as the game went along as he pitched a complete game during the North Stars' 8-1 victory over the host Saints (12-6, 7-4) in Upstate Eight Conference River Division action.

"To start the game off, I didn't feel the greatest," said Mettetal, who allowed 5 of the first 9 batters he faced to reach base through the first 2 innings. "My mechanics were off.

"As a sophomore coming over here and starting a varsity game, I was just a little nervous but then I just got used to it."

The North Stars (16-4, 9-3) helped calm Mettetal a bit by scoring 2 first-inning runs.

Mettetal (3-for-4, 3 RBI) helped his own cause with an RBI single to right-center and Cory Wright (3-for-4, 3 runs scored) came across on a few moments later on a wild pitch.

St. Charles East, which has scored just 5 runs during its 4-game losing streak, cut the deficit in half with a second-inning run.

Reid Olson reached on a 1-out double and Jake Asquini walked before the Saints executed a double steal with 2 out. Corbin Marucco's infield single drove in Olson as the Saints made it 2-1.

However, the Saints wasted an opportunity to score additional runs during an inning that included 3 hits and a walk.

"We had him (Mettetal) on the ropes but we just didn't take care of the business end at the plate," said Saints coach Len Asquini. "Then we started swinging at bad pitches in some really good hitting counts. We're swinging at balls we can't move."

In the third, the North Stars put 3 more runs on the board to extend their lead to 5-1.

Wright led off with a single, raced to third on Mettetal's infield hit and scored when the Saints failed to call a timeout during a mound conference.

"That's such a heads-up play," said North Stars coach Todd Genke. "Cory Wright makes us go. That play really springboarded us into getting some runs. Any time you add on runs when the other team is down, it's pretty suffocating."

"Apparently, we didn't call timeout," said Asquini. "That's a good baserunning move on their part. When the wheels are spinning, they're spinning."

Kyle Novotney delivered an RBI double and Kyle Khoury added an RBI single in the third.

That was more than enough support for Mettetal (4-1), who retired the final 8 batters - including a span where he recorded 5 consecutive strikeouts.

"In like the third or fourth inning, I was kind of like, 'gosh, he's just not showing the body language that I want to see,'" said Genke, "and then all of a sudden I think he realized that blood was in the water and he wanted to stay out there.

"It was great to see because he's had a couple up-and-down outings. Today, I was excited to see what he would do."

Mettetal added a 2-run double during a 3-run seventh that included 3 Saints errors.

"I like the way we're swinging it," Genke said of his team's 11-hit attack fueled by Tyler Mettetal, Wright and John LeGare (2-for-3). "We've had some tough losses over here in the past and for them to come here and have a dominating win is pretty impressive."

The Saints, meanwhile, will try to avoid a sweep when the 3-game series concludes today at St. Charles North.

"There's a lot of facets of the game that aren't working right now," said Asquini. "We didn't pitch very well today. We didn't hit very well today. We had a decent defensive game going until the end there.

"When those three facets are gone, these lopsided losses are going to happen. We've got to get back to Saint baseball that we're definitely not playing right now."