Baseball: St. Charles North takes second straight from St. Charles East

After spotting St. Charles East a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning, St. Charles North's baseball team refused to dwell on the negative Monday night.

Instead, the North Stars (15-6, 10-1) battled right back with a 4-run first inning of their own and later snapped a 6-6 deadlock with another 4-run outburst in the bottom of the fifth on their way to a 10-6 DuKane Conference victory at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva.

While clinching the season series for the fourth time in five years with their second consecutive double-figure output, the North Stars will try to complete the sweep at home Tuesday afternoon - weather permitting.

Things looked very promising for the Saints (13-5-1, 8-3) early on as leadoff walks to Clay Conn and Ben Testo preceded Kyle Hayes' RBI double and Cole Conn's RBI single.

Thomas Schroeder's 2-run double to left-center extended the Saints' lead to 4-0.

St. Charles North led off the bottom of the first in similar fashion with back-to-back walks to Michael Gattuso and Egon Hein before Patrick Bellock's RBI single made it 4-1.

Nick DeMarco's infield single and a throwing error allowed Hein to score the second run before Ryan Thiesse's sacrifice fly and Andrew Jimenez's RBI groundout knotted the score at 4-4.

"Responding to their four-run inning in the first was big," said North Stars coach Todd Genke. "I think that kind of shocked them (the Saints), too."

An infield throwing error helped lead to the North Stars' 2-run third that was highlighted by a 2-run single from Jimenez.

St. Charles East tied the game in the top of the fifth. A wild pitch allowed Gino Cerrone to score to make it 6-5 before Genke opted to intentionally walk Hayes (on a 3-0 pitch).

The strategy paid off when second baseman Egon Hein started a double play on a grounder as Clay Conn scored to tie it at 6-6.

"Egon made a heck of a play on that ball up the middle," said Genke. "We don't come all the way (with the infield) - we go halfway and it worked out for us there. Sometimes, you roll the dice."

In the bottom half of the frame, the Saints rolled the dice - and it came up snake eyes.

Hein led off with a hit-by-pitch before Bellock's single put runners on first and third with nobody out.

At that point, Saints coach Len Asquini issued an intentional walk to DeMarco, loading the bases for Thiesse, who drilled an RBI single through the middle of the diamond to give the North Stars a 7-6 lead.

"I tried to focus on the approach of (going) opposite field," said Thiesse. "I tried to stay calm up there and smack the baseball."

After a strikeout, sophomore Kevin White delivered a 2-run single to make it 9-6 before Kyler Brown added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly.

"Our lineup keeps coming at you," said Genke. "It's exciting to watch."

DeMarco fanned 4 of the 7 batters he faced in the last 2 innings for the North Stars in relief of winning pitcher Johnny Lambert.

Meanwhile, it was another tough game for Saints pitchers, who allowed 8 hits while walking 6 and hitting 2 batters.

"It's certainly something that we're concerned about and it's something we've got to clean up fast because we can't keep doing that," said Asquini. "It's not typical of our guys.

"Offensively, we came out hot but after that we got one hit and that was on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Other than that, we really didn't attack baseballs the way we should.

"It's a gut check for these guys. This will be a good moment for us to see where we're at and see how we play."