Baseball: St. Charles North completes sweep on emotional night
Some things are just bigger than baseball. And Tuesday’s series finale of the Crosstown series was no exception.
On a day where they honored the lives of Kevin White and Gregg Wikierak, St. Charles North secured a three-game sweep over St. Charles East with a 4-3 victory at Northwestern Medicine Field
Before the game, the North Stars honored White and Wikierak. White, who played on the varsity team before graduating from North in 2022, was killed in a car crash Aug. 16, 2022. Wikierak, who was an assistant coach for North for five seasons, passed away Nov. 29. The North Stars also all wore the number 20 on their warmup jerseys, White’s number during his time with the North Stars.
North coach Todd Genke said that getting the chance to honor the legacy of both White and Wikierak was very important for the program, and he couldn’t thank East enough for allowing them to celebrate both of their lives.
“Today was about honoring their legacy and honoring the things that they did for this program,” Genke said. “Baseball is just a game. We’ve learned some tough life lessons with losing those two incredible human beings. And their families being here tonight and just being here to celebrate them; it’s just hard to put into words, but it means a lot to me personally.”
After falling behind 3-1 heading into the top of the fifth, Genke told his team that he could feel the presence of both White and Wikierak in the dugout, and their presence seemed to put an extra shock into the North Stars’ bats.
Mike Buono started off the scoring in the inning after sending a ball over the head of left fielder Devin Minarik for an RBI double to cut the lead to 3-2. Two batters later, Collin Ryder tied the game at 3-3 with another towering shot to left field for a sacrifice fly that scored Josh Caccia, who pinch ran for Buono.
But it was Jadon Harmon who had the biggest hit for North (17-3-1, 10-1 DuKane), both figuratively and literally. The senior sent a ball to the warning track in dead center field for the go-ahead RBI triple to score Ty Heimbuch, who also scored the first run in the third on a fielding error, and put the North Stars up 4-3.
“I just wanted to find my pitch and drive it,” Harmon said. “To give my team a hand and get us into the lead and win the game, it felt great.”
Genke said that the performance that the North Stars gave during the game was one that both White and Wikeriak would have been proud of.
“To see a team like that come back on a big stage against an arch rival to sweep a team in this very difficult conference is really tough to do, and I’m just so proud of this team,” Genke said. “That’s how North Star baseball is meant to be played; as hard as you can.”
East (9-7, 7-5) got their first lead in the series in the bottom of the fourth inning. After loading the bases with only one out in the inning, North sent Liam Ruane to the mound to relieve starter Jake Kujak. The Saints took advantage of the switch and jumped into the lead after Mac Paul lined a two-run single to right field. Two batters later, Minarik drew a walk on a full count to send another run to the plate to make it 3-1.
“We haven’t had the opportunities to take the lead this series, so we tried to make something happen,” East coach Derek Sutor said. “We had to be aggressive, and it was fun because that built us some momentum, and we just had to close it out.”
But after North regained the lead in the top of the fifth, Ruane found a second gear and shut down East’s offense. He finished the game with five strikeouts and only allowed two hits in 3 2/3 innings pitched for the win.
“After we got the lead, I knew that we needed to shut it down,” Ruane said. “I wanted to stop them from hitting, running and just limit everything, so that was just the whole mindset: Just stop everything.”
Sutor said that he was proud of the effort that the pitching for the day, especially from starter Joey Arend. The Xavier commit finished the game allowing four hits and three earned runs while striking out seven in five innings.
But at the end of the day, Sutor felt that getting swept by a team like St. Charles North is a learning experience for the team.
“When you go against a team like that, you’re going to take a punch and battle some ups and downs,” Sutor said. “But you need to find out the things that you need to straighten up before regionals start, and it’s better to have these bumps now rather than later.”