Baseball: St. Charles North’s Paul shuts down Dundee-Crown to win regional semifinal
Two pitches were all Landon Paul needed.
Featuring a fastball-sweeper combination, the junior right-hander made quick work of the Dundee-Crown lineup after entering in the fifth inning of St. Charles North’s IHSA Class 4A regional semifinal baseball matchup against the Chargers. Paul struck out six over three perfect innings as the North Stars held off the Chargers for a 3-1 win.
“My offense and Benny (Auer) set me up real well,” Paul said. “We had a good shot to go out there and win. I just had to throw up zeros and that’s what I did. It started with the bottom of the order and I kept getting balls by them. I had some help, but we did a great job overall.”
Pitching ruled the day Wednesday, when the North Stars (22-12-1) took their home field looking to start a run to their eighth regional championship since 2014. St. Charles North turned to one of its top starters, Ben Auer, to get the team through the semifinals. The senior struck out four and allowed just two hits over the first four innings.
“The early fastball was coming out of the hand well and I was able to locate it,” Auer said. “My slider wasn’t really working at the beginning. We made some adjustments and I got it to work the fast few innings. The last few innings, I tried pitching to contact and keeping the pitch count low. I kind of knew how to attack them, which made it easier.”
Facing a two-run deficit after three innings, Dundee-Crown (13-21) remained in the mix behind a strong relief effort from right-hander Max Backaus. Entering in the bottom of the fourth, Backaus punched out three and worked around two walks over three scoreless innings. One of Dundee-Crown’s top starters, Backaus didn’t allow a hit on 64 pitches.
“I just tried to fill up the zone, throw strikes and let my defense do the work,” Backaus said. “I was just getting my fastball by them. I’m normally a starter and I’ve only come out for relief twice this year. I came out in a clean inning and it felt like a start later in the game.”
St. Charles North and Dundee-Crown traded runs in the early going. A double steal led to a North Stars run in the bottom of the first and Dundee-Crown answered in the top of the second, where Kaden Klancnik plastered a two-out double down the left-field line. Langdon Straub smacked an RBI single and Julian Harmon sent a sacrifice fly to right to put St. Charles North up 3-1 in the third.
“The goal is to get guys on base,” said St. Charles North coach Todd Genke, whose team drew seven walks in its win. “However that happens, we’ll take it, whether it’s a walk, an HBP or a swing. When you play a good program like Dundee-Crown in these playoff games, they’re going to be low-scoring and you’re going to see some quality arms.”
Despite five walks, Dundee-Crown starter Nathan Bushy struck out three and escaped jams in the first two innings. The right-hander stranded a pair in the second and left one on second base in the first inning. But the Chargers, who had won four of their last five games coming in, were unable to muster up much offense in their season-ending loss.
“We just didn’t get a timely hit when we needed one,” Dundee-Crown coach Andrew Zimmer said. “We didn’t get a lot of guys on base and we gave up too many freebies. They had three hits, we had two and they won the game 3-1. I thought our pitchers competed well against a really good team. For the most part, I thought they filled up the zone.”
The No. 3 seed in its bracket, St. Charles North will advance and host No. 2 seed South Elgin at 10 a.m. Saturday for the regional championship. The Storm beat Larkin 10-0 in semifinal action Wednesday afternoon.