Baseball: St. Charles North's 7th-inning rally hands St. Charles East 1st DuKane loss
Held without a hit for the first 6 1/3 innings, St. Charles North's baseball team strung together one of its patented late-inning rallies Thursday afternoon.
After a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch to Edge Ritter tied the score at 1-1, freshman Keaton Reinke delivered a walk-off, 1-out RBI single past the drawn-in infield to lift the North Stars (16-5, 10-3) to a 2-1 DuKane Conference victory over cross-town rival St. Charles East (17-2, 12-1).
"We kept coming back to the dugout saying, 'it's a one-swing game,'" said North Stars coach Todd Genke. "We've got a chance.
"We said, 'keep believing, keep believing - we're going to walk this off in the seventh.'"
Reinke, whose older brother, Parker, had the game-winning hit in the North Stars' 5-4 walk-off win over St. Charles East last season, kept the family tradition intact with his late-inning heroics.
"I got up there and was thinking fastball," said Reinke. "I knew I had to get it out there to win the game, and that's what I did.
"It feels amazing. It was my time, and I took it. As a freshman, it's even better. (St. Charles) East is a great team."
"There's something about him," Genke said of the younger Reinke. "He just doesn't panic."
The Saints, who saw their 14-game winning streak snapped, squandered several scoring opportunities as well as a brilliant pitching performance from senior right-hander Seth Winkler.
Winkler retired the first 11 batters before issuing a 2-out walk to Mike Buono in the fourth. Until the seventh, North's only other baserunner, Jackson Spring, reached on a 2-out infield throwing error in the sixth.
Jaden Harmon broke up the no-hit bid with a single in the seventh.
"We got a great performance on the mound there from Seth," Saints coach Len Asquini said of Winkler, who allowed 2 hits and struck out 8.
"It's tough to win a high school ballgame or any game, 1-0."
The Saints, who grabbed an early 1-0 lead on an opposite-field home run off the bat of sophomore Joe Arend in the first, stranded 9 baserunners over the last 4 innings - including a pair of bases loaded situations in the fourth and fifth innings.
"We had the bases loaded with nobody out and couldn't even move a ball to maybe get somebody across," Asquini said of the fourth inning.
North Stars starting pitcher Anthony Estrada worked his way out of the jam with 3 consecutive strikeouts before junior reliever Liam Ruane came on to end the Saints' bases-loaded, 2-out threat in the fifth.
"It's a little different situation but still couldn't get anybody in," said Asquini. "Last inning - same thing. We had chances to push runs across, but we just didn't do it.
"It's the first time all year that our offense didn't do much executing."
Ruane, who picked up the win, worked himself out of a second-and-third, 2-out jam in the top of the seventh, giving his team an opportunity to win it in the bottom half.
"Liam has been one of our quality guys out of the bullpen," said Genke. "We knew we could trust him. I thought Tony (Estrada) pitched well, too. He worked in and out of a couple of jams. That's what we needed."
The 3-game series continues Friday at East.
"This is huge for us, obviously for the cross-town rivalry, but more so to get back in the (conference) race, and to get the guys to realize, 'we're a good team, we belong here,'" said Genke.