Baseball: St. Charles North stuns New Trier to earn 1st state berth

Down by a run and down to its last strike Monday in the Class 4A Schaumburg supersectional, St. Charles North kept the Faith.

As in Sam Faith, the North Stars' junior third baseman. All he did was deliver the biggest hit in school history.

Faith's 2-out, 2-strike, 2-run single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning gave the North Stars a thrilling 4-3 come-from-behind win over New Trier, sending St. Charles North to the state tournament for the first time.

Faith fell down in the count 0-2, then fouled off four pitches while getting to 2-2. He hit a high, hard chopper that first baseman Matt Kann reached high for. The ball went off the top of Kann's glove into short right field, and as the second baseman chased down the ball and threw well late to first, both Brendan Joyce and Zach Mettetal scored as the North Stars raced out of their dugout to mob Faith.

"I was just trying to simplify my swing, get a base hit and get one run to tie it up," Faith said. "I just kept battling. I was never going to quit."

Faith's hit capped an improbable rally from a 3-0 deficit in the sixth inning facing New Trier ace Ben Brecht, a hard-throwing lefty headed to the University of California-Santa Barbara. The North Stars chased him with 2 runs in the sixth, then scored 2 more against Ryan Acri in the seventh.

"We were just trying to get guys on base," Joyce said. "It started with Zach Mettetal's hit and then Kyle's hit (Novotney) and we got momentum back. That's what you need in baseball."

St. Charles North (32-6) will play Mundelein (30-9) at Silver Cross Field in Joliet at 5 p.m. Friday in the Class 4A state semifinals.

"This team doesn't know how to quit and it's all led by the seniors," said North Stars coach Todd Genke, who celebrated the comeback on the same Boomers Stadium field where he pitched for the Schaumburg Flyers from 1999-2003, including the first game ever.

"They could have been satisfied but they are not and now they are making a trip downstate. We're living that. It's a reality for us. And we're not just going there to look around."

New Trier (27-10) scored twice in the first inning and seemed in control from there to the final batter. North Stars starter Jack Lambert walked the first batter on 4 pitches, issued a 1-out walk to Kevin Donahue, and both bases on balls turned into runs on a double from Acri and a groundout by Dylan Horvitz.

Lambert quickly found his rhythm after that, allowing just an unearned run in the third inning. He pitched 6 innings, yielding 3 hits while striking out six.

"I was a little shaky at the start, it was just the nerves, but after that I settled down," Lambert said. "I just had to stay confident. We've been down in games but we end up scoring runs."

Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth with just 3 singles against Brecht, Mettetal and Novotney blasted nearly identical balls deep to right center. Both balls were nearly caught but neither were, putting runners at second and third with no outs.

John LeGare made it a 3-1 game with an RBI groundout, and Faith's double down the left-field line scored Novotney to cut New Trier's lead to 3-2 and knock out Brecht after 99 pitches.

"Ben just ran out of gas," said New Trier coach Mike Napoleon. "But you can't make errors, and you have to get a runner in from third with less than two outs even if you are up 3-0. Every run matters."

Acri entered and hit Brenden Norberg before catching pinch hitter Anthony Delisi looking to end the inning and strand runners at second and third.

Joyce started the seventh inning by doing one thing the North Stars excel at - getting hit by a pitch. St. Charles North set a record last year for getting hit, and the North Stars just surpassed that total this year.

Luke Corcoran bunted Joyce to second. Mettetal singled to center, sending Joyce to third.

Acri got Novotney on a hard comebacker, but instead of throwing to second to start a potential game-ending double play, he looked Joyce back at third and threw to first.

That left runners at second and third with 2 outs, and after the Trevians elected to walk LeGare intentionally, Faith made them pay.

"I didn't expect it," Faith said of walking LeGare. "I thought they were going to challenge him. But I was ready. I got the big hit at the end. I've never felt this good before. This was the biggest moment of my life to be honest."

Just before Faith stepped into the batter's box, Genke reminded him of his clutch bases-clearing triple 10 days ago in the regional championship game.

"It was the right decision, I would have done it too. You don't want John LeGare to beat you," Genke said of New Trier's strategy.

"He (Faith) got enough on the baseball to make it a tough play. The hops are going in our direction."

Tim Hasto picked up the win in relief, pitching a scoreless seventh inning.

"So excited," Lambert said. "We've been working toward this the whole year, since the fall even. To finish off at state with these guys is awesome."