Baseball: St. Charles North's 8-run 7th beats St. Charles East
One inning after letting a bases-loaded opportunity slip away, St. Charles North's baseball team regrouped and exploded for an 8-run seventh during its 8-1 victory over crosstown rival St. Charles East Monday night at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark in Geneva.
With the win, the North Stars (25-4, 20-1) clinched the Upstate Eight Conference River Division championship outright for the second straight season.
While it is the sixth conference title in school history, it is the first time the North Stars have captured back-to-back crowns.
"It's hard to do," said North Stars coach Todd Genke. "You play this many games in a conference season and lot of things can happen. I give our kids a lot of credit. It's a check-box for us and, man, what a whale of a game it was."
Trailing 1-0 with 3 outs remaining, the North Stars began their rally with back-to-back singles by Blake Saltsman and Sam Faith off Saints starting pitcher Stevie Podany before Zach Fick reached on a bunt single to load the bases.
Junior Conor Bizik came off the bench and delivered a game-tying RBI single.
"I took it to the right side," said Bizik. "That's what I was looking for - right side all day. It's a great feeling - it's once in a lifetime."
Brendan Joyce forced in the eventual game-winning run after being plunked by a 1-1 pitch.
"That has been a big catalyst for us all year," Genke said of the hit batsman.
An infield throwing error allowed two more runs to score before Zach Mettetal's 2-run double down the left-field line made it 6-1.
Kyle Novotney became the eighth straight batter to reach when he unloaded an RBI triple to deep center, and Jason Shanner's run-producing groundout capped the 8-run uprising.
"Steve (Podany) was throwing the whole game but I knew at some point we were going to start to get some hits and string something together," said Mettetal. "It happened to be the seventh (inning)."
Senior southpaw Jack Lambert ran his record to 10-0 with a complete-game performance that included a walk and 6 strikeouts.
"I call every pitch and he doesn't miss more than two or three in a game," said Genke.
St. Charles East grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second on Anthony Adduci's double to deep left-center and Jimmy Dale's RBI single.
"I don't think he's been down all year," Genke said of Lambert. "It was 1-0 and felt like it was more but he showed the heart of a champion."
Podany suffered the tough-luck loss for the Saints (21-10, 16-6).
"Stevie threw a super game," said Saints coach Len Asquini, whose team committed 4 errors. "It's unfortunate that the score doesn't indicate how well he threw.
"It was a nice battle there and unfortunately that kind of blew up there in the seventh because it's really not an indicator of how good a ballgame this was between two pretty good teams."
The 3-game series resumes Tuesday afternoon at St. Charles North.