Baseball: St. Charles North, Wheaton North all tied up
Nick DeMarco again reminded opposing hitters on Tuesday how special he can be on the mound.
After being tagged for four runs - two unearned - in the sixth inning against Wheaton North on Tuesday, the St. Charles North senior rebounded for eight strikeouts in three innings of relief to preserve a 10-10 tie through nine complete innings.
DeMarco, typically the North Stars' closer when he's not at his customary shortstop, entered the game on the mound with a tough task ahead of him. He had to nurse a 7-6 North Stars lead with two men on and none out.
After DeMarco coaxed a pop out, Falcons senior Trevor Blum singled to load the bases. Jackson Moore followed with a two-run double to center field that gave the Falcons an 8-7 lead. Blum was tagged out at the plate stretching for the insurance run, but the Falcons had two more singles before Tyler Whelton smacked a two-run single to put the Falcons up 10-7 heading into the seventh.
"It was a tough situation," said DeMarco, who also hit a two-run home run in the second inning to spark a 5-0 North Stars lead. "We saw yesterday [in a 5-4 win] you can't come into a game thinking you're going to beat a team. Anyone in the DuKane Conference can keep on putting runs on the board and stay in the game."
"He's special. He makes us go. Anytime you can bring somebody in like that [is valuable]," North Stars coach Todd Genke said of DeMarco. " ... We can extend him as well, which we obviously did and that's just a huge, valuable asset to have on your team."
The North Stars (9-0-1) battled to earn their bases and spark an unlikely tying comeback into the top of the seventh.
Jayden Lobliner led off with a double and Marco Torres was hit by a pitch from Falcons senior pitcher Connor Coats, who was then relieved by Quinn Flanagan. Aidan O'Connell followed with a single on an 0-2 count to load the bases for Ethan Kobylinski, who struck out.
Ryan Caccia was then hit by a pitch in the head to bring in Nathan Suksengdow, who courtesy ran for Lobliner. Alex Najera worked a 3-2 count for a walk to bring in Torres to pull within 10-9 before Demarco earned another bases jammed walk to tie the game at 10.
"You can't score enough against [St. Charles North]. You really can't. They have such a good lineup one through nine," Wheaton North coach Dan Schoessling said. "They can put the ball in play and they can hurt you anywhere there. We'll just have to see if we can make a few things happen [on Wednesday] and finish off this [series]."
"If we're not finishing guys with their at-bats; it seems like we did scoring 10 runs, but they're [Wheaton North] are doing the same exact thing with the conditions at the ballpark today," Demarco said. "You got to play it out to the end. [I] came in in a tough spot, had a few hiccups in the [sixth] but after that, our offense kept us in it."
DeMarco struck out two in the seventh, two in the eighth and all three batters in the ninth to keep the Falcons off the scoreboard, but the North Stars were also unable to generate another run. Perhaps their best chance was in the top of the ninth where they loaded the bases with two outs before Torres flew out to right to end the threat.
After the North Stars took a 5-0 lead, Wheaton North's Leo Widtmann hit a three-run triple in the second. The Falcons (4-3-1) later tied it in the third after Moore's two-run homer, and later took a 6-5 lead in the fourth after an RBI single from Will Fletcher.
Lobliner jacked a two-run shot in the fifth to take back the brief North Stars lead at 7-6 before the run-crazed final four innings.
"It's a very good thing that we're in these kind of games early in the season," DeMarco said. "We're learning a lot about us as a team. We'll be able to win games just like [Monday] when we're not playing our best ... and then coming out on top at the end of the day. That's going to help us down the road once we clean up a few things and we're going to be able to win games."