St. Charles N. ties for River lead

Two games to go and the Upstate Eight Conference River Division is all tied up.

That’s not surprising given the number of quality teams this spring. But how St. Charles North got here certainly is.

Just five days ago the North Stars watched Geneva pile on 15 runs in one inning. They then went and lost to Elgin on Saturday.

But with a little help from those same Vikings and a lot of perseverance at St. Charles East on Tuesday, the North Stars are now tied with the Saints for first place following a wild 7-4 victory in 8 innings.

St. Charles North (23-10, 17-6) led 4-0 going to the bottom of the fifth inning before St. Charles East (19-10, 17-6) forced extra innings helped in large part by a strange sequence of three catcher’s interference calls.

The North Stars quickly regained momentum against Johnny Hondlik (4-3) who relieved starter Luke Ludke to start the eighth inning.

Jake Smiley’s grounder up the middle deflected off Hondlik’s glove. Erik Nelson bunted him to second, Smiley took third on a wild pitch and scored on Adam Delisi’s single between third and short.

Kurt Barbeau followed with a 2-run single, like Delisi taking advantage of the drawn-in infield to find a hole.

“I was just trying to put the ball in play. I knew there was one out, I just needed to make contact. It just got through, I got lucky,” said Barbeau who credited the North Stars bench for keeping the spirits up after the Saints had rallied for the 4-4 tie.

“The bench was great. It kept us in the game. That’s really what keeps us up is our bench.”

Barbeau (2-for-4, 4 RBI) also stroked a 2-run single in the North Stars’ 4-run fourth, the only inning they scored in until the eighth. Jake Johansmeier led off with the lone extra-base hit for either team, a double to the gap in left-center.

John Brodner laced a single up the middle to score Johansmeier. Smiley singled and Delisi drew a walk to load the bases with two outs for Barbeau who drove the first pitch he saw down the right-field line. All three runners scored when the ball got away from the Saints right fielder.

“He (Ludke) was throwing first-pitch fastball all day so I knew I was going to get a fastball,” Barbeau said. “He threw it down the middle and I just hit it.”

North Stars starter Ankur Shah responded in the bottom of the fourth with a shutdown inning. The lefty came back from 3-0 down in the count to get dangerous Joe Hoscheit to pop out, then also retired the No. 4 and 5 hitters in a 9-pitch inning.

That was part of an impressive outing for Shah who didn’t allow an earned run in his 5 1/3 innings, striking out just 1 but allowing only 3 hits and 1 walk. He was in line for the win until the game got away from the North Stars late.

“Ankur came out in a tough surrounding in a huge game as a junior and really threw the ball well,” said North Stars coach Todd Genke. “His breaking ball was sharp, he had a good change-up that kept them off-balance. He competed. He didn’t really get hit hard at all. He kind of ran out of gas toward the sixth inning.”

Shah got a mixed day from his defense behind him. Two errors put him in trouble at times, but Brodner at third base charged to take an infield hit away from Jack DelloStritto. Delisi at first made a perfect stretch and scoop on the other end, and later Delisi reached high to grab an errant throw and end the fifth inning on a close play.

Brandon Drawant also took a run away from the Saints in center field when he gunned down Jordan Hayes at the plate in the sixth.

The Saints still scored two runs in that inning to pull within 4-3. With Brodner on in relief, a wild pitch plated Hoscheit and Troy DeFilippis added an RBI single.

After North Stars catcher Nick Gilmore was called for catcher’s interference in the sixth, the Saints put two more runners on base in the seventh on the exact same play with Gilmore’s glove getting too close to the batter and making contact with the bat.

“We just had some goofy things happen,” Genke said. “To see one (catcher’s interference) a year is rare. Three in one game, I don’t understand. We teach them to get up close to the hitter so you can get more angles on the ball but when it happens once you think a guy is going to step back a little bit. He kept getting under there. I don’t know how Nick’s hand is attached after getting hit three times. He’s a pretty tough kid and I give him credit for staying in there.”

With their other catcher Ryan Thomas sidelined until the playoffs with a broken bone, Genke called Chris Wildo down from the bullpen. But Gilmore stayed in the game.

DelloStritto was hit by a pitch to start the seventh, one of three combined hit-batters on both teams in the game. After Nicholas Erickson’s fielder’s choice, Hayes reached on another catcher’s interference, and Hoscheit’s bad-hop single down the right field line drove in Erickson to tie the game at 4 and put the winning run at third base with one out.

After a popout, a third catcher’s interference call loaded the bases with two outs. Brodner induced a little tap in front of the plate and alertly tagged out Hayes trying to score the winning run from third on a bang-bang play at the plate.

“That was a real nice play, a heady play,” Saints coach Len Asquini said.

The Saints have dropped three straight heading into Wednesday’s game at St. Charles North.

Asquini said Nick Huskisson will pitch Wednesday and Kyle Manske Thursday while Genke mentioned Johansmeier and Carl Formento with Max Pedre a possibility given the Saints’ struggles with a lefty Tuesday. Only Hoscheit (2-for-4) had a multiple-hit game for the Saints who were outhit 10-5.

“We’re just missing a little bit,” Asquini said. “We’re not on all cylinders right now. We’re a little short on finishing our games, and finishing our at-bats and finishing innings and it’s coming back to get us. The nice thing is all three we were down, came back. We’re right there. That’s part of the finishing. I wish I had the magic wand and could wave it and get it done.”

Genke, who missed the first three games last week in his 10-year career following shoulder surgery, knows a lot can change the next two days. Geneva also is very much alive in the race, just one game back and can claim a share with two wins over Streamwood and if the North Stars and Saints split. Geneva won 2 of 3 from both St. Charles schools.

“We are in a good spot but certainly this game doesn’t make series,” Genke said. “We’ve got two huge games left. I was really proud of the way we didn’t panic. We came up in the eighth inning and really executed.”