Muir's gem lifts St. Charles North
Westin Muir overslept Monday morning, which made the St. Charles North senior especially thankful for the downpours that swept through Naperville the night before.
Because of that rain, St. Charles North's scheduled 12:30 p.m. game at North Central College in the Phil Lawler Summer State Tournament was pushed back to 4:30 p.m. and moved to Naperville Central High School.
That gave Muir a little extra time to get ready, and he responded with a gem against Brother Rice. Painting the corners from the first to seventh inning with a wipeout curve ball, Muir struck out 10 batters, allowed just 5 hits and no walks, and pitched the North Stars to a 4-0 victory.
"I woke up this morning later than I thought I would and I panicked because I thought I was late," Muir said. "My mom said, 'Your game has been moved back.' It gave me more time to prepare. I made sure I got loose and it actually kind of helped that our game got moved back."
St. Charles North (15-1) will play Plainfield South at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at Benedictine University. A victory advances the North Stars into the state semifinals Wednesday night at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg; a loss and the North Stars will play an elimination game at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Muir only started one game during his junior year as the North Stars completed the best season in school history by reaching the state tournament for the first time.
It was at the state tournament when Muir gave North Star fans a glimpse of what to come. He pitched the final 2 innings and earned the win in St. Charles North's third-place victory over Plainfield North.
"My confidence was huge after that," Muir said. "I came off the field knowing I could have a huge role on the team this year."
The confidence is growing for the entire program, now following its first state berth in the spring with a first summer state appearance.
"Getting to the final four in spring and getting here a month after is a pretty cool experience," right fielder Brenden Norberg said.
"In the past it would always be one mistake and we'd be out," said North Stars assistant coach Sean Doherty, who filled in for Todd Genke. "It seemed the bounces went our way this spring and we took advantage and now it has kind of snowballed into the summer season."
Norberg, Zach Mettetal and Jason Shanner all had 2 hits Monday. The North Stars scored single runs in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings.
Norberg got the North Stars on the board with a run-scoring single in the third. Justin Dunne's fly ball plated Conor Bizik who had singled leading off the fourth, and Dunne scored in the sixth on a wild pitch.
Shanner's RBI single to right capped the scoring. Muir did the rest, retiring the side in order with two strikeouts in the seventh.
"From the first pitch of the game I could tell I had my stuff today," Muir said. "After the first batter I could tell it was on. Just keeping them off-balance was key and hitting my spots was big."
"He did a fantastic job," Doherty said. "We realized early they wanted to hit off the straight one and we kind of pitched backward. When he has his breaking ball it makes it very easy to call pitches. It was like playing a Nintendo game."
• In other tournament action Monday, Huntley scored 9 runs in the fifth inning of an 11-2 win over Warren, Fremd defeated Naperville Central 1-0 in 8 innings, and Plainfield South rallied for a 3-2 victory over Lyons.