advertisement

Softball: St. Charles North crushes Batavia

There's nobody on the schedule that St. Charles North looks forward to playing more than St. Charles East, and the North Stars tuned up for the first installment of the annual rivalry in impressive fashion Tuesday with a 15-2, 5-inning win at Batavia.

The North Stars (7-2, 5-0) and Saints play twice every year, and those games regularly decide the Upstate Eight Conference River championship.

This season figures to be no different, starting with Wednesday's tilt at St. Charles East.

"It's a great rivalry, East has a great team. We're excited to play them," said North Stars catcher Sam Hausl, who has played in 6 of the games in her varsity career. "It's always a heartbreaker for one team.

"It means so much not necessarily getting first place because we've obviously shown that conference doesn't mean everything, it's how you play in the tournament. But every year we want to beat them, that's our rivalry, that's the one we strive to beat."

The wind was blowing out at Batavia, and St. Charles North went deep early with a towering 2-run blast by Amanda James in the first. Jordyn Wolfe (3-for-3) had an inside-the-park home run in the second, and Allison Moberg kept the fireworks going with a line drive home run.

"I think we were just seeing the ball really good," Hausl said. "We are just really focused every game we come into."

Batavia (6-5, 3-2) got a run back in the first when Toni Galas stole home as the North Stars threw to second trying to get Jaelen Lisberg stealing second.

Scoring one run at a time was not going to keep up at the North Stars' pace. They scored in every inning - 3, 5, 1, 3 and 3 - as coach Tom Poulin was able to get plenty of at-bats for his reserves.

"I'm pleased with the performance and I'm really happy to get everybody in," Poulin said. "There's not a drop-off when you think of the people we have on the bench. It's good to give people at-bats and get people on the bases because they will be needed as the season goes on. You have to have depth."

Madeline Webb earned the win, improving to 2-1.

Galas went 3-for-3 to lead Batavia including a double to drive in the Bulldogs' other run in the fifth.

"It was nice to see her get that hit at the end of the game and get that run in," Batavia coach Lupe Castellanos said. "Today was a real good game for her. I expect her to play like this most of the time.

"They are a great hitting team. We're going to have to make plays. You have to give a team like that a lot of credit. They are one of the best defensive teams I've seen in awhile. They are a hard team to come back against."

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.