Baseball: Burlington Central’s Maglares quiets St. Charles North
Burlington Central junior Sam Maglares gave himself a bit more pressure than he wanted in the top of the third inning.
After getting two quick outs to start the frame, the junior allowed the next three St. Charles North batters to get on base, giving the North Starts a prime chance to wipe away Central’s one-run lead.
And after North’s Mason Netcel had worked himself to a 3-2 count, Maglares knew he had to make his next pitch reflect his mindset.
“It’s those types of situations where it depends who wants it more,” Maglares said. “You just have to have a winning mindset and stay tough and believe you are good at what you do.”
After striking out the batter, it was clear he wanted it more.
Maglares finished the game only giving up three hits and one run (0 earned) while striking out five to help the Rockets come out with a 2-1 victory over the North Stars.
“He’s thrown great for us twice now this season,” Rockets coach Kyle Nelson said. “For him, it’s just about confidence and trusting that while he pounds the zone. We’ve got a good enough defense to pick him up when they hit it.”
The Rockets (6-0) struck the board early in the contest, as senior Chase Powrozek drove in Zach Hintz, who was a courtesy runner for senior catcher Jake Johnson, with a sacrifice fly to give them an early 1-0 lead.
The Rockets didn’t score again until the fourth inning. After hitting a double earlier in the inning, sophomore Wagner Viebrock dashed to third base after a wild pitch from North Stars pitcher Matt Ritchie.
But with Viebrock rounding third and the catcher still not finding the ball, Nelson made the decision to send him home.
“He can run quite a bit,” Nelson said. “That’s a situation where we’re up 1-0, and we want to take a chance and make them make a play, and it happened to be the right call.”
Viebrock safely slid into home plate, giving the Rockets what proved to be a very necessary insurance run.
“I feel like my experience as a courtesy runner definitely helped me out with that,” Viebrock said. “It just gives me a lot more experience, especially since I’m still new to the varsity team.”
Viebrock finished the game with two hits, joining fellow sophomore Bennek Braden as the only players with multiple hits in the contest.
Despite the mishaps, the North Stars (3-4) managed to stay in the contest thanks to their own pitching. Besides his two unearned runs, Ritchie allowed just three hits and struck out eight batters.
“He competed in his own, which is something we talk about with him,” North Stars coach Todd Genke said. “If we can pitch like that, we’re going to win a lot of games.”
Ritchie also recorded one of the three hits the North Stars had alongside junior Keaton Reinke and senior Matt Kelly. Their only run came in the bottom of the fifth when Henry Grimm scored on an errant throw to second base trying to catch Reinke stealing.
“This is the type of game in a regional or a sectional where your season ends,” Genke said. “We had multiple opportunities to score runs there, but we just didn’t execute as well as we should have. But we’ll learn from this and get better from it.”