St. Charles N. blanks Batavia
Batavia’s Austin Higgins and St. Charles North’s Jake Johansmeier staged a good, old-fashioned pitchers’ duel Wednesday afternoon in St. Charles.
While Higgins returned to the mound from a lengthy layoff (sore arm) and tossed a 2-hitter with 6 strikeouts, it was Johansmeier (3-2) who emerged victorious as he fired a 5-hit complete game to lift the North Stars (20-8, 14-4) to a 1-0 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over the Bulldogs (12-14, 10-11).
“I was throwing down in the bullpen and they said I was throwing hard but I didn’t feel like I had all my stuff,” said Johansmeier, who walked 1 and fanned 4. “Instead of being overaggressive which I was last time (in a loss to Geneva), I kind of hit my spots and let my defense work.”
Johansmeier, who retired 13 consecutive batters at one point, was on cruise control until the Bulldogs’ last-ditch comeback bid in the top of the seventh.
After the senior right-hander retired the first 2 batters on fly balls, Nick Pappas legged out an infield single and Steve Durham walked to put runners on first and second.
Sophomore Colby Green then sliced an opposite-field single to left but Batavia coach Matt Holm was forced to put up a stop sign for courtesy runner Charlie Smorczewski at third after North Stars outfielder Erik Nelson made a clean scoop and strong throw to the plate.
“When the ball was coming in, he (Smorczewski) hadn’t gotten to the bag yet,” said Holm. “If it would have been on a different field with a different infield, I would have taken a chance in that situation. But I think he would have been thrown out by 20 feet.”
With the bases loaded, Johansmeier and Batavia junior shortstop Billy Zwick locked up in a classic 8-pitch battle that was eventually won by Johansmeier — on a 0-2 breaking ball called for a third strike.
“He wasn’t giving in and I wasn’t, either,” said Johansmeier. “That last pitch felt good. It was exactly where I wanted it.”
“Billy had a great at-bat,” Holm said of Zwick. “That outside pitch just caught him.”
The North Stars manufactured the game’s only run in the bottom of the first, thanks to a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt, some heads-up baserunning and contact hitting.
After Brandon Drawant led off with a single, Jake Smiley laid a sacrifice bunt down the third-base line. While Green fielded the ball and threw out Smiley at first, Drawant raced all the way around to third before Johansmeier’s infield grounder drove in the North Stars’ lone run.
“The funny thing is we actually kind of work on that,” said North Stars interim head coach J.R. Richardson, filling in for Todd Genke, who underwent shoulder surgery Wednesday. “Our catchers are trained whenever the third baseman takes that bunt to roll over and cover third. When no one was there, we knew we could beat that shortstop down the line. It was definitely worth the risk, especially early in the game.”
The win, North’s 15th in its last 16 games, didn’t come easy against Higgins.
“He was fantastic,” Holm said of Higgins, who only allowed 4 base runners. “He’s been out for a month so to have him come out and throw a 2-hitter — it’s disappointing that he had to be on the bad end of a 2-hitter.
“We made the one bad play in the first inning not following up on a sacrifice bunt and letting the guy come around (from first to third). In a tight game like this, you just can’t make those mistakes.”
“Their guy threw absolutely great — he was tough to hit,” Richardson said of Higgins. “Thankfully, we did enough to scratch a run in.”
Johansmeier did the rest during an efficient 75-pitch performance.
“He pitched like he’s been pitching all year,” said Richardson. “He threw 76 percent of his pitches for strikes. That’s going to win a lot of ballgames.”