St. Charles North sweeps Batavia
St. Charles North took the first two games of its three-game matchup with Upstate Eight River Conference rival Batavia with lockdown pitching, shutting out the Bulldogs in both of those games.
The North Stars received another quality start in the third game of the series Thursday from sophomore Tyler Mettetal. This time the bats came alive as well as the North Stars sent nine men to the plate and scored five runs in the second inning and scored seven more runs in the fourth inning to put the game out of reach and sweep the series with a 13-3 victory.
St. Charles North (23-4, 17-3) jumped out to an early lead when Brendan Joyce led off the game with a single to right field. Kyle Novotney scored Joyce with a slow roller to third.
The North Stars took control of the game in the second inning with some help from the Bulldogs.
Batavia (12-17, 11-10) made three consecutive errors to start the inning and load the bases for Joyce who walked to bring in Kyle Khoury.
Cory Wright then singled to left field to score two runs. Novotney drove in two more runs with a single that scored Joyce and Wright to make it 6-0. The inning ended with a batter's interference call for an out and with a runner getting picked off first base by Batavia starting pitcher Glenn Albanese.
"We scored first again and that is such an important part of this whole game," said St. Charles North coach Todd Genke. "We left some out there in the second inning but we got up on these guys. They are a quality team with quality arms and they are a team that is going to compete all the way until the end, we know that, so it was nice to get up early."
Mettetal (5-1) got into some trouble in the bottom of the second when Luke Beckmann and Joey Gross started the inning with back-to-back singles and Ben Lynam drew a walk to load the bases with no outs.
Matt Musielak brought home Beckmann with a ground out to second but Mettetal got out of the inning without any more damage and settled in nicely. In fact, he did not allow a hit for the rest of the game before being lifted for a reliever in the fifth inning.
"Tyler is just a bulldog," said Genke. "He's just got to get into the game a little bit. I ran out and told him in the second inning that he had to dominate the lefties, there's enough of them in the lineup and that is why you're throwing. He said, 'I got it coach.' He's a big, strong kid and his velocity was up today and I liked what I saw after the second inning. He figured it out and after that he was cruising."
The North Stars sent 11 batters to the plate in the fourth inning with eight of the first nine reaching base safely. John LaGare drove in two runs with a double to the left field fence and Joyce singled in two more runs as well in the inning as the lead swelled to 13-1.
"We had our bats going today for the first time in a week or so, that was nice to see," said Joyce. "This was big. They are a very good team, their record may not show it but I think their pitching is the best we've seen all year."