Baseball: St. Charles North uses timely offense, stellar pitching for extra-inning win over St. Charles East
With two strikes, two outs and the go-ahead run just 90 feet away from the plate in the ninth inning, St. Charles North’s Jake Kujak knew he needed to get his bat on the ball.
One pitch later, the ball met his bat and flew past James Feigleson’s glove and into the outfield to give the North Stars the lead.
“Just hearing my teammates cheer for me, that was great,” Kujak said.
The senior would add an insurance run after scoring on a wild pitch, and secured the final three outs on the mound for the save to help the North Stars to a 5-3 victory in nine innings over St. Charles East to take Game 1 of the series Saturday.
“I was fired up,” Kujak said. “This is a great rivalry, probably the best in the DuKane, and it definitely showed out there.”
North coach Todd Genke made the call to put Kujak on the mound after Liam Ruane gave up a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the ninth. Genke said that for him to get the game-winning hit and the save on the mound was a great feeling.
“Kujak has been great for us offensively, defensively and on the mound all season,” Genke said. “Those moments are things these kids live for. They come here when they’re little to watch this game and they get the chance to come out to the field and do it themselves, it’s pretty special.”
The North Stars (15-2-2, 8-1 DuKane) started the game out hot. After their first two runners failed to get on base, North proceeded to get their next six batters on base on two hits, three walks and an error. Jadon Harmon drew a walk with the bases loaded to bring in the first run of the game. Trevor Lambel followed closely behind with an two-run single to right to give them an early 3-0 lead.
“Ideally if you’re the visiting team, the goal is to score runs first and put some pressure on the home team,” Genke said. “The best part was getting all those runs with two outs. Whether it’s with no outs or two outs, you’ve got to compete at the plate, and we had some good things happen for us there.”
The Saints (9-5, 7-3) didn’t get their first baserunner of the game until the sixth inning on a walk from Mac Paul, and managed their first hit two batters later, when Sam Frausto blooped a single over first base. East made the most of their opportunities though, as two throwing errors and a wild pitch led to the Saints scoring three unearned runs to even the score at 3-3.
“Anytime that you go up against a team like North, you have to expect to take a punch,” East coach Derek Sutor said. “We had to find some way to get on base, and we found ways to get on and make the most of our opportunities.
On the mound, Josh Caccia proved to be a thorn in the Saints’ side in the first five innings. The North Stars’ all-time strikeout leader finished the game with 11 strikeouts, including eight consecutive Ks to start the game, and held a perfect game until Paul’s walk in the sixth. Genke said that Caccia’s performance was one of the best he had ever seen from him.
“I just wanted to attack the hitters in the game,” Caccia said. “The hitters were late on my fastball at the time so I knew I could get it past them. And when they started touching it, I started working in more breaking balls to make them roll over it and I let my defense work behind me.”
On the other side of the mound, Cole Ridgeway was keeping North at bay. After striking out Kujak with the bases loaded to end the first, Ridgeway held North scoreless for 5 1/3 innings while striking out six more batters before handing the ball to Jack Bennett with one out in the seventh.
“I know I got put in a tough situation, but I knew that my coach and team was depending on me,” Ridgeway said. “After getting the strikeout on three pitches, it pretty much gave me my motivation for the rest of the game.”
The Saints’ offense proved to be the deciding factor in the loss. East only managed three hits in the game and had 17 strikeouts in the opening contest of the three-game series.
“We’ve just got to get better at the plate,” Sutor said. “We need more quality at-bats. That’s a game where you’ve got to learn, tip your cap and move on because if you don’t, things like that tend to snowball.”