St. Charles North powers past Waubonsie Valley

While there's probably not many teams that are easy to beat with a third-string catcher, there might be none more difficult than St. Charles North.

That's the situation Waubonsie Valley found itself in Tuesday in St. Charles. The Warriors lost their starting catcher Julia DiMonte and backup Ellie McHale on plays at the plate in Saturday's doubleheader against West Chicago.

The North Stars scored half their runs on passed balls or wild pitches in an 8-3 victory. They also stole five bases - by five different players - and it would have been six if not for one runner sliding past the bag.

"Our kids are quick anyway and now with the 43 feet everyone has pretty much taken advantage of that," St. Charles North coach April Stary said. "Unless you have a pretty speedy pitcher and a pretty speedy catcher there's going to be a whole lot more bases stolen."

Ryane Pappa moved from center field to catch. She also led off for Waubonsie Valley and got the Warriors off to a good start against North Stars starter Amanda Engel. Pappa singled to start the game and scored on a two-out single up the middle by Jackie Kreiner.

St. Charles North (12-2, 5-1) took the lead for good with a pair of runs in the second inning. Annie Korth smashed a triple that brought in Ashley Seering, who had singled to open the inning. Pinch runner Caitlin Khoury scored on a passed ball.

The North Stars opened a 5-1 lead with three runs in the fourth. Taylor Russell started the rally with a single, and the rest of the damage was on walks, wild pitches, stolen bases and passed balls.

Waubonsie Valley pulled within 5-3 on RBI singles by Kreiner and Lauren Thresh in the fifth inning.

The North Stars answered with three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Loren Cihlar bunted for a single and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Korth capped the scoring with her first home run of the season, a 2-run shot to left-center.

"It was right down the pipe," said Korth, who hit 3 home runs as a sophomore last year. "I was hoping for it. It felt good to regroup and win and getting over Neuqua (Valley, who handed the North Stars their first UEC loss last Thursday)."

Korth's big day Tuesday followed a 3-for-3 game against Elgin Monday.

"Her and Taylor (Russell) and a couple other kids are on fire lately," Stary said. "We've got her in the lineup as much as we can.

"It's hard to get all our kids in the lineup when you know they can all go in, they can all produce. It's a matter of who is the hottest at that point of time and keep them in until they cool off a little and then put someone else. They have been doing that all along."

Waubonsie Valley coach Jennifer Jennings has the opposite situation with injuries leaving her short-handed. Thresh took the loss, allowing 8 hits and 3 walks. The Warriors actually outhit the North Stars, 10-8.

"I thought we did great with what we had," Jennings said. "We didn't have our A team.

"Our pitcher has been down for three days. She wasn't throwing hard at all, just getting it across the plate."

Engel had 5 strikeouts and just 2 walks to improve to 5-2.

"Amanda Engel kept them off balance," Stary said. "She gave up a couple runs but came back every time."