Baseball: Bullpen delivers in St. Charles North's win over Geneva

Six pitches into the game, St. Charles North baseball coach Todd Genke had long relief pitcher Johnny Lambert begin to loosen up in the North Stars' bullpen.

"I had to get ready pretty quickly at that point," said Lambert.

When senior right-handed starter Tristan Cazel was pulled from the contest after Geneva (7-6-1, 1-3) pushed a run across in the top of the second, Lambert (2-0) came on and pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up the win during the North Stars' 4-1 DuKane Conference victory Tuesday afternoon in St. Charles.

The sidearm-throwing southpaw struck out 8 of the 16 batters he faced, fanning the side while stranding a runner at second in the fifth.

"I thought that Tristan (Cazel) still did a good job but they (coaches) wanted me in there," said Lambert. "I tried to utilize my curveball a lot against their lefty hitters along with a lot of outside fastballs."

Cazel struggled with control, walking a pair and hitting a batter before Genke turned to Lambert.

"Obviously, we were going with Cazel for a reason," said Genke. "He has earned it. He just didn't have much command so against a good team in this conference you can't wait around too long.

"I decided to make the change. Johnny (Lambert) has been pretty good early on here. He's a strike thrower and he's got a good breaking ball. We're going to need Cazel if we want to go where we want to go but today just wasn't his day. Johnny came in and did a great job."

St. Charles North touched Geneva starter Blake Breon for 3 first-inning runs.

Ryan Thiesse led off with a double and stole third before scoring on Patrick Bellock's opposite-field double to make it 1-0.

After Bellock stole third and Nick DeMarco walked, a throwing error during a rundown on a pickoff play at first allowed Bellock to score with the inning's second run.

A groundout by Andrew Jimenez drove in DeMarco to extend the lead to 3-0.

"We've got to play a little cleaner," said Geneva coach Brad Wendell. "We were letting them take third base too easy (on steals) and we didn't get inside (the infield grass) on the pickoff play."

In the third, DeMarco's sacrifice fly drove in Egon Hein, who led off the frame with a double, to make it 4-1.

Geneva threatened in the sixth, loading the bases with 1 out thanks to an error and back-to-back singles by Brendan Krohe and Michael Klazura.

However, DeMarco came on in relief of Lambert to fan the next 2 hitters before striking out another in the seventh to pick up his first save.

"That's the first time Nick has thrown," said Genke. "He's a kid I think we can depend on late in the game. He's a great player to have on your team because he can do so many things.

"He got us out of a jam there."

Geneva left 9 men on base, including 7 over the last 4 innings.

"We just needed a hit when it mattered most," said Wendell.

Breon suffered the loss, giving up 4 runs on 4 hits in 5 innings with a walk and 3 strikeouts.

"He did a nice job and kept us in the game," said Wendell.

The series continues Wednesday and Thursday in Geneva.