Baseball: St. Charles North survives scare from Lake Park
The Lake Park baseball team nearly landed the Class 4A Schaumburg sectional's biggest fish Thursday, but No. 1 St. Charles North slipped the hook and notched a 5-4 victory in 8 innings.
No. 6 Lake Park (22-13) tied the sectional semifinal 4-4 with 2 runs in the top of the sixth inning and seemed poised to take the lead in the eighth when it loaded the bases with no outs against St. Charles North reliever Christian Sidoti.
The senior right-hander responded by striking out Joe Kennedy, who in his previous at-bat had doubled and driven in a run.
Sidoti then induced a tapper back to the mound from designated hitter Dom Fallico, whose sixth-inning single had tied the game. Sidoti calmly threw home to catcher Erik Rabin to begin an inning-ending double play.
"I kind of zoned back in and flushed what was happening," said Sidoti (3-1). "I knew I could rely on the guys behind me if I kept the ball down and got a little groundball, and that's what happened. After they turned the double play and got out of the inning, I knew the guys were going to pick us up and get that big winning run."
Indeed, St. Charles North (30-6) capitalized on the momentum from its escape. Senior John LeGare led off the eighth by drawing a walk from senior right-hander Connor Cook (6-5), working his second inning in relief for Jim McDonald, who allowed 4 unearned runs on 5 hits in 6 innings.
St. Charles North (30-9) proceeded to load the bases with no outs. Sam Faith was hit by a pitch and Conor Bizik was intentionally walked after Cook balked.
No. 8 hitter Zach Fick subsequently flied out to center field. The ball was too shallow for LeGare at third base to tag and score, but he crept down the line when it looked as though the throw from center field would overshoot catcher Zach Aehlert with nobody backing him up.
However, Aehlert made a leaping catch and immediately threw to Jamison at third to catch LeGare in a rundown. The third baseman ran LeGare straight toward Aehlert. At the last moment he flipped the ball to the backtracking catcher, but it glanced off his mitt and fell to the ground as LeGare dived to the plate safely to send St. Charles North to Saturday's sectional championship game.
"That could have been the end of our season, but we had to believe," LeGare said of the eighth-inning transition from hunted to hunter. "We had to believe that this is the team that could go far and do something no other North team has done before."
The win advances the North Stars to a sectional final for the third time in their history and the first time since 2010. They will play the winner of today's Class 4A Schaumburg sectional semifinal between No. 3 St. Charles East (23-14) and No. 7 Batavia (24-10) at 4:30 p.m.
"I've lost two years in a row in the sectional semifinals and I was tired of losing at this point in the playoffs," North shortstop Zach Mettetal said. "I think the entire team had the same mentality. It's a sigh of relief. We just want to keep it going."
Stunned by the turnaround, the Lancers had trouble digesting the turbulent eighth inning.
"We played the No. 1 team in the area as tough as you can play them," Lake Park coach Dan Colucci said. "I think they're breathing a sigh of relief that they got away with the win. I mean, how else do you call going from bases loaded nobody out in the top of the inning to that? They're a great team, don't get me wrong. But we had 'em. We had 'em. We just didn't finish it. Best of luck to them on Saturday. They're a great club.
"I'm proud of my guys and they way they did battle. I wish for these guys that it would have turned out a little bit differently. Tough way to walk off the field."