Baseball: Hamer, St. Charles North handle Larkin

Miami of Ohio recruited St. Charles North senior Steven Hamer as a two-way baseball player because of performances like Tuesday's 11-1, five-inning victory against visiting Larkin.

On the mound, the left-hander struck out 8 to raise his season total to 43 and did not issue a walk, freezing that number at 9. He improved to 4-0 and lowered his earned run average to 1.15 in 25 innings.

Hamer was equally tough on the Royals batting cleanup. He went 2-for-4 with 2 doubles to the wall and drove in 2 runs to lead a 9-hit attack in the Upstate Eight River win.

What will the Redhawks ask of Hamer when he joins them next season?

"They'll probably have me as a pitcher. I don't know yet," he said. " It'll be interesting to see what we do."

St. Charles North coach Todd Genke says Miami is getting a ballplayer either way.

"I just love the way he competes when he pitches," the North Stars' 14th-year coach said. "We know he's going to give us a great, quality start. Offensively, he's hitting in the four-hole for a reason. He's a special player and he makes us tick."

Larkin (7-13, 5-12) jumped to a first-inning lead. Craig Reuter led off with a double down the right-field line and later scored from third when North's third baseman could not handle a hard groundball off the bat of Gunnar Boley.

The Larkin lead did not last long. St. Charles North (19-2, 13-1) responded with a 4-run first inning against Larkin junior left-hander Max Anderson. The rally included 3 hits, including a run-scoring knock by Erik Larson, but the Royals unintentionally aided the rally with 2 infield errors and 2 walks.

The North Stars struck for 6 more runs in the second to take a 10-1 lead. Anderson walked Patrick Bellock to start the inning and Larkin's third error opened the floodgates. Anderson was charged with 10 runs, 2 of which were earned.

"It was kind of a mix of a couple of errors, they get a hit or two, a walk, a hit by pitch," Larkin coach Matt Esterino said. "Max did not have his best stuff, but against quality teams in our conference you have to play your best ball and that wasn't our best."

Junior Zach Hubbard relieved Anderson with two outs in the second inning, trailing 10-1, and kept the score right there. The right-hander limited North to a lone hit in 2⅓ innings. Hubbard did not allow a run until Bobby Rosengarten ended the game with a run-scoring, one-out single in the fifth inning to invoke the 10-run rule.

St. Charles North's Sean Nemetz drove in 3 runs without a hit and leadoff man Ryan Thiesse doubled and drove in a pair.

Reuter, Boley and Andy Bonnot had the only hits for Larkin, which has lost 4 straight since a 7-1 home win against St. Charles East on April 25.