Baseball: St. Charles North rallies to down Geneva
Regrets, the North Stars nearly had a few.
Tuesday's series-opening 5-1 victory over visiting Geneva in a battle between Upstate Eight River leaders was one of those games that would have kept the St. Charles North baseball players awake at night had they not rallied in the sixth inning.
North had a runner picked off first base in the first inning, another thrown out at the plate in the fourth and yet another caught in a rundown between second and third in the fifth.
Those missed opportunities loomed large when Geneva (14-5, 8-2) tied the game 1-1 in the top of the sixth on left-handed hitting Jack Wassel's two-out single off St. Charles North starting pitcher Jack Lambert. It scored Dylan Baer, who earlier laced a one-out double.
St. Charles North (15-2) went from regretful to reinvigorated in the bottom of the sixth by rallying for 4 runs on 2 hits, a walk, a fielder's choice and 2 hit batsmen to win its 13th straight overall. The North Stars are in sole possession of first place in the UEC River at 10-0.
"We didn't run the bases well early," St. Charles North coach Todd Genke said. "Against a quality team you're starting to think, 'Gosh, we should have had one there, we should have had this, we should have had that.' To the credit of our guys, we kept fighting."
Junior Sam Faith put the North Stars back in the lead against Geneva junior right-hander Noah Davison (3-1). After Blake Saltsman drew a one-out walk and courtesy runner Luke Corcoran advanced to second on a passed ball, Faith smacked a basehit to left field to stake his team to a 2-1 lead.
"I like being put in those situations where I get all the pressure on myself and I get to put my team in front," said Faith, who went 2-for-3. "It gets me motivated."
Next up was Joyce, a normally dependable baserunner who twice was caught in baserunning pickles. The speedy leadoff man redeemed himself by scorching a 2-run single down the third-base line. Jake Chantos and Justin Fick scored to make it 4-1 St. Charles North. The lead grew to 5-1 on Tyler Mettetal's sacrifice fly.
Geneva's Davison lost despite holding the high-scoring North Stars - who averaged 10.2 runs over their previous 12 games - to 4 earned runs on 8 hits and 3 walks. He struck out a pair.
"Noah's been fantastic all year," Geneva coach Matt Hahn said. "Of all the games he's pitched this year, that's his one bad inning. You'll take that from a junior pitcher in Game 1 of a series against the top team in the conference. Come playoff time, that's the kind of guy I want on the mound."
Lambert, a senior left-hander who sat out his junior season to rest an elbow problem, improved to 7-0 by limiting the Vikings to 1 earned run on 4 hits. He struck out 6 in 6 innings without issuing a walk. Geneva entered the game on a 6-game winning streak during which it averaged 13 runs.
"We had some high expectations going into this game so it was great to come away with the W," Lambert said.