Baseball: Gomez, South Elgin shut down St. Charles North
The pitch count was the only thing capable of stopping South Elgin junior Nate Gomez on Wednesday.
One of four hurlers to claim a regular-season win against No. 1 seed St. Charles North, South Elgin's right-handed phenom proved the April 8 victory was no fluke in a 1-0 win over the North Stars in a Class 4A Lake Park baseball sectional semifinal at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg.
Gomez earned the victory with help from senior right-hander Jack Stancl, who nailed down his third save by getting the last two outs against future Division-I hitters Zach Mettetal and Tyler Mettetal once Gomez was forced out of the game by rule after passing 105 pitches.
St. Charles North (30-5) was hitting .361 as a team and averaging 9 runs per game entering sectional play, yet Gomez held the North Stars scoreless on 6 hits and 2 walks and struck out 8 over 6⅓ innings.
"I had a lot of confidence going in," Gomez said on the same day seven colleges requested film of him, according to coach Jim Kating. "My previous game against them my stuff was going good. I just needed one run and that would do the job. My curveball was working real good, my changeup as well. I was spotting my fastball good and got the job done."
Gomez improved to 6-0 and lowered his earned-run average to 0.66 in 42⅔ innings.
The Storm will play Willowbrook, a 5-1 winner over Conant in Wednesday's second game, in the 11 a.m. title game on Saturday.
"I give him a ton of credit because the way we were swinging the bats and the way our offense was playing it would take a special, special outing from a kid to do that to us and shut us out," St. Charles North coach Todd Genke said. "I give him a ton of credit. The kid really kept us off balance with his changeup. I thought that was the great equalizer. And if you have great velo behind it, you're going to keep high school hitters off balance and he did that."
Westin Muir (4-1) was nearly as dominant for the North Stars. The senior right-hander held the Storm to an earned run on 4 hits and 2 walks over 6 innings.
The only run Muir yielded against No. 4 South Elgin (24-4) came in the top of the fourth inning. Adam Walker singled with two outs and Cameron Kovanda drew a walk. That set the stage for junior Nate Smith, who kept his hands back on a curveball and golfed it into center field for a run-scoring single.
Smith said he and his teammates believed one run would be enough.
"Earlier in the week, it's funny, (Gomez) said 'All I need is one run,'" Smith said. "That's what we were saying all week going into the game and we got him that one run. You can't stop him after that."
The North Stars didn't stop trying, however. They upped the tension in the bottom of the seventh inning when No. 9 hitter Sean Nemetz singled to right field with one out and Anthony Delisi followed with a single to center.
Kating lifted Gomez, who reached 111 pitches after Delisi's 7-pitch at-bat. He signaled for Stancl with Memphis-bound Zach Mettetal and South Carolina-bound Tyler Mettetal due up.
Stancl got Zach Mettetal to ground an 0-2 pitch to Kovanda at second base for a fielder's choice that left North Stars at the corners with two outs.
Zach Mettetal took second on a wild pitch with twin brother Tyler at the plate, giving the North Stars a chance to win the game with a single. After Tyler ran the count full, Stancl induced a flyball to the right-center field gap that right fielder Bryant Diel tracked down and squeezed to preserve the shutout.
The loss highlighted the unforgiving nature of the single-elimination IHSA tournament for the North Stars, a team with 16 seniors that went 63-12 over the past two seasons, including a third-place finish in Class 4A in 2016.
"They were the heart and soul of our team," Genke said of the seniors. "Now, we're going to have to replace them and that won't be easy but we'll move on. I love them like sons. They came to work every single day and they left it all on the field. It's tough. This game will rip your heart out losing a game like this, but they're going to have great careers going down the road and they left their legacy at St. Charles North."