Baseball: St. Charles North, Batavia win regional semifinals
Four St. Charles North players had 3 hits as the North Stars' baseball team rolled to a 16-4 win over Glenbard North Thursday in the semifinals of the Class 4A Hoffman Estates regional.
SCN (28-6) will take on the winner of Friday's South Elgin vs. Wheaton North game in the 3 p.m. regional final on Saturday.
Brendan Joyce (2B, 3B, 4 RBI), Zach Mettetal (2 doubles, 3 RBI), John Legare (HR, 2 doubles, 4 RBI) and Connor Bizik (2B, 3 RBI) each had 3 hits for the North Stars while Luke Corcoran (2 hits) and Sam Faith (2B) also contributed to the offense.
Ryan Litavecz, the second of three SCN pitchers, was credited with the win in the five-inning game.
Batavia 10, Conant 3: Glenn Albanese, Jr. tossed a 5-hitter with 9 strikeouts and 3 walks and added a double at the plate to send the Bulldogs into Saturday's Class 4A regional final at Glenbard West, where they will play Glenbard East. Luke Beckmann and Kyle Niemiec each hit home runs for Batavia and Tyler Munoz added 2 hits with a double and 2 RBI.
Prairie Ridge 18, Larkin 8: Michael Rodriguez (3 RBI) and Keonne Mebane (RBI) each had doubles for Larkin (10-24), which saw its season come to an end in the Class 4A Barrington regional.
Huntley 8, Rockford East 1: At the Class 4A Rockford Guilford regional, Adam Smylie allowed just 2 hits with 5 strikeouts and 2 walks to send Huntley (22-14) to Saturday's 5 p.m. championship game against Hononegah. Jeff Heinrich (2 hits, 2B, 2 RBI) and Brad Model (2 hits) led the Red Raiders' offense.
Burlington Central 6, Sandwich 1: Craig Schuring threw a 3-hitter with 8 strikeouts and he hit a 2-run home run to lead the Rockets (20-10) to the win at the Class 3A Sycamore regional. BC will play Sycamore in Saturday's regional final. John Murphy added 2 hits for the Rockets while David Lauber and Killian Vasica each had doubles.
At Kaneland: Kaneland and Marmion will meet for the Class 3A Kaneland regional title on Saturday after the Knights defeated Plano 5-0 and Marmion eliminated Aurora Central Catholic 9-2. In Kaneland's win, Jacob Violett6 threw a 5-hitter with 15 strikeouts and 1 walk. Leading the offense for Kaneland (14-13) were Jake Marczuk (2 hits), Luke Calabrese (2 hits, 2B, 2 RBI), Joe Laudont (2 hits, 2B, RBI) and Matt Rosko (2 hits). Marmion got a 6-hitter with 5 strikeouts from Collin Gibson in its win. Will Matthews (2B, RBI), Brandon McPherson (2 RBI) and Matt Henkel (2 hits, HR, 2B, 2 RBI) led the offense for the Cadets (10-22). Johnny Belskis had a home run and Jake Smith added 2 hits with a double and an RBI for ACC (21-14).
Grant 8, CL South 7: Crystal Lake South was eliminated from the Class 4A Cary-Grove regional in eight innings. Kory Olsen had 2 hits with a double for the Gators (26-7) and Griffin Bright added a double and 3 RBI.