Baseball: Lambert, St. Charles N. cool off Batavia
Despite missing the 2015 season with an injury, St. Charles North's Jack Lambert learned some of the finer points of pitching from teammate Cory Wright.
Wright, the North Stars' staff ace and best all-around player the past two seasons, graduated last spring and is now playing at Kansas State University.
Lambert, meanwhile, has returned to health and the senior southpaw improved his mound record to 3-0 with 6 innings of 4-hit ball during the North Stars' 5-0 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over host Batavia (4-1, 0-1) Tuesday afternoon.
"Playing with Cory last year and having him around was awesome," said Lambert, who enjoyed near-pinpoint control to register 12 strikeouts without a single walk. "He taught all of us a lot. It's a lot to look up to."
"I was real happy with Jack Lambert," said North Stars coach Todd Genke. "Here's a kid who was out all last year with an injury. He was lights out on our trip (last week to Myrtle Beach). Coming over here, it was a big challenge for him and obviously, he stepped up and was awesome. Almost every pitch I called, he put it where we wanted it. When you get 12 punchouts against a quality team, that's saying something.
"He's a competitor - he'll come at you," added Genke. "Hopefully, he's picking up the pace that Cory (Wright) left behind at the top of the rotation."
St. Charles North (4-2, 1-0) grabbed a 1-0 lead with a second-inning run off hard-throwing Batavia junior right-hander Glenn Albanese (1-1).
Kyle Novotney slashed a leadoff triple down the third-base line and scored on a fielder's choice groundball off the bat of Zach Mettetal.
The North Stars padded their lead with a pair of fourth-inning runs off Albanese, who struck out 8 and walked 2 in 4 innings of work.
After Zach Mettetal's leadoff walk and stolen base, junior Sam Faith delivered an RBI single to right to make it 2-0.
Faith advanced all the way to third on a fielding error following a pickoff attempt and came across with the North Stars' third run of the game on a run-producing single by designated hitter Blake Saltsman.
"We talk about grinding all the time - getting to the next pitch and to get the pitch count up," said Genke. "Especially early in the season, you can get a guy out of the game after 70 or 80 pitches. That's what we did."
St. Charles North added a pair of unearned runs in the seventh off Bulldogs junior reliever Luke Golson.
"You can't make six errors and win a baseball game," said Batavia coach Matt Holm. "They didn't move people around - once they got on, we were moving them for them. You can't do that."
The teams resume their rivalry Wednesday in St. Charles.
"It's going to be a tight conference all the way around," said Holm. "That's one (game) but you've got another 24 to go or whatever it is."
"It was a statement game," said Genke. "This is always a tough place to play. I was curious to see how we'd come over and play."