Baseball: St. Charles North handles St. Charles East again

The St. Charles North baseball team added a series victory over rival St. Charles East to its growing list of accomplishments Tuesday.

With a second straight Upstate Eight River title already sewn up by virtue of Monday's victory over the Saints, right-hander Ryan Litavecz and first baseman Luke Corcoran paced the North Stars to a 3-0, series-clinching home win.

Litavecz (4-1) frustrated the Saints throughout a 1-hit shutout. Though the junior right-hander finished with only 2 strikeouts, he kept hitters guessing with a mix of curveballs and fastballs and the occasional changeup.

Litavecz said his game plan was to "keep it low, let them hit the ball and let my defense make plays for me. It feels amazing to do that, especially on our home field." He retired the last 10 Saints he faced.

"We didn't hit," said St. Charles East coach Len Asquini, whose team has scored once in 14 innings against the North Stars. "Credit their guy. He must have been doing something special out there. We just couldn't pick the ball up or we couldn't move the ball. We were just down and out. We have to be able to hit. We have to be able to push the ball and score some runs. We didn't challenge them defensively. We need to be able to do that."

St. Charles North (26-4, 21-1) threatened to score against St. Charles East starting pitcher Niko Klebosits (5-3) in the third inning, but he escaped a bases-loaded jam by inducing a popup off the bat of Brendan Joyce.

Likewise, the Saints (21-11, 16-7) had runners in scoring position in the third inning but failed to score when Klebosits drew a lazy flyball to right field from designated hitter Blake Saltsman.

Klebosits kept playing with fire, however. After allowing a one-out single to senior second baseman Zach Fick, the left-hander continued a dangerous trend of issuing free passes. He walked No. 9 hitter Erik Rabin and hit Joyce with a pitch to load the bases. Overall, he and reliever Dillon Halleran combined for 3 walks and 5 hit batsmen."That's just too many freebies," Asquini said.

Corcoran stepped to the plate and lined a 1-1 pitch just out of the reach of the center fielder for a 2-run single.

"We preach first available with a runner on third, so I was just trying to put the ball in play," said Corcoran, who went 2-for-3 with a walk. "I got a pitch on the outer half and I drove it to right center."

Corcoran scored an insurance run in the sixth inning when he used a deft hook slide to turn Kyle Novotney's line drive to center field into a sacrifice fly. Corcoran barely beat the throw to the plate by Saints center fielder Brendan Benvenuti.

The victory puts the North Stars in position to sweep the 3-game series when the teams meet at East today at 4:30 p.m.

"This is a good start," Corcoran said. "We got off to a slow start in both games but we found a way. We got on the board and just never looked back."