St. Charles North wins 9th straight
Sabrina Rabin set the tone, and Batavia never truly recovered.
The St. Charles North junior walked to lead off the teams’ Upstate Eight Conference River Division softball game Wednesday afternoon and was soon home on back-to-back stolen bases and a throwing error.
Twenty-one batters in all would come to the plate for St. Charles North in the first two innings; a dozen scored, and the North Stars cruised to their ninth consecutive win with a 13-1 slaughter-rule victory over the Bulldogs in St. Charles.
“Once Rabin gets on, it’s hard to contain her,” Batavia coach Lupe Castellanos said. “You have to play almost flawlessly against her.”
It is a recipe that has been the glue to the North Stars’ four straight conference championships; the North Stars (16-4, 12-2) swiped five bases in the first inning alone as the squad would ultimately plate eight runners.
“We want to be aggressive on the base paths all the time,” said St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin, whose team retained a narrow lead over St. Charles East in the league standings. “Even if we aren’t hitting home runs, we still feel like we can manufacture some runs.”
Abby Howlett drove in runs in both the first and second with a sacrifice fly and single, and the left-handed hitting first-baseman later added a third RBI to close out the North Stars’ attack.
Delaney Olinger and Erin Nemitz had back-to-back run-scoring singles for St Charles North during its first-inning eruption, which was set up by consecutive outfield miscues by Batavia.
Kaitlyn Waslawski knocked in the last of the North Stars’ first-inning runs by plating two with the bases loaded.
Howlett, Alexandra Millett, Olinger and Nemitz then added consecutive singles in the North Stars’ 4-run second as the squad chased the Batavia starter four outs into the contest.
Poulin subbed liberally for the remainder of the game.
“(We are) playing as a team,” said North Stars reserve infielder Amanda James, who played the last three innings at shortstop. “That’s how we play as a team — as one.”
“It is insane with how well we have been with our hitting,” center fielder Andrea Beal said. “We have started really hitting the ball. It helps back up our pitcher. Sabrina has been on top for us.”
Rabin allowed only Ryanne Rokos’ bunt single in her two innings of work; Katie Roggemann pitched the last three innings for the North Stars, who outhit Batavia 12-4, to get the win.
Katie Ryan spoiled the shutout for St. Charles North with a two-out, fifth-inning single to score Sammi Villarreal.