Buddle's blast jolts St. Charles North into action

A thunderous home run from South Elgin's Alyssa Buddle's woke up St. Charles North on Friday.

The North Stars scored 11 runs and had 12 hits in 2 innings after falling behind 1-0 to defeat the Storm 11-1 in six innings.

"That kind of fueled us," St. Charles North's Sabrina Rabin said. "I definitely think that was one of the motivators."

Buddle hit an 0-2 pitch from Rabin over the scoreboard in left-center to lead off the bottom of the fourth to give South Elgin (4-3, 1-2) the lead.

Andrea Beal led off the fifth with a triple for St. Charles North (5-2, 1-2). Rabin followed with a triple to bring in Beal. Kaitlyn Waslawski drove in Rabin with a double to left. Alex Millett singled later in the inning to score Waslawski for a 3-1 lead.

The first eight North Stars batters reached base in the sixth as they sent 14 batters to the plate. In the inning, Mickey Goetz had a 2-run double, Abby Howlett had a 2-run triple, Rabin had two run-scoring singles and Millett drove in another run. South Elgin, which needed three pitchers to get out of the inning, also committed 3 errors.

"Early on we were a little overly aggressive at the plate," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "Then we had some quality at-bats and we became patient."

Rabin went 4-for-5 at the plate, drove in three and scored twice. Waslawski, Goetz, Howlett, Millett and Beal each had 2 hits.

Rabin (3-2) also picked up the victory, allowing 5 hits, walking one and striking out seven. The lone mistake she made was an 0-2 pitch to Buddle, who Poulin had planned to walk every time she came up but decided to pitch to her since she was leading off an inning.

Paige Allen (2-2) took the loss. The senior went 5 innings and allowed 3 runs. She walked two and struck out two.

"We're having the same offensive problems we had all week," South Elgin coach Stephanie Katzenberger said. "We're just not getting enough baserunners."