North Stars can't overcome mistakes in loss

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St. Charles North's quest for a sectional title and trip to the state finals will have to wait for at least another year.

In a forgettable game filled with a number of mystifying mistakes, the third-seeded North Stars saw their season come to an end with a 5-2 loss to No. 2 Wheaton North Thursday in the Class 4A Larkin Sectional semifinals.

At no point were St. Charles North's blunders more prevalent than in the fifth and sixth innings when three different Falcons batters reached on dropped third strikes and came around to score, providing Wheaton North (22-13) with what was ultimately the final margin of victory.

However, that was far from the only set of costly miscues for the North Stars (23-12), who also committed three fielding errors, failed at one point to score after loading the bases with one out and wasted another scoring opportunity with a base-running mistake.

"We just let stuff slip away," North senior Jake Thornton said. "I think we were in good spots to capitalize, but we just let it slip away in every phase of the game, whether it was offensively or defensively."

With the score tied at 1 going into the bottom of the fifth, the North Stars brought in junior lefty Zach Hirsch to relieve starter Danny Jimenez, who'd thrown close to 100 pitches through the first four innings.

Hirsch proceeded to strike out Wheaton North's first two batters swinging, but both players reached on dropped third strikes that got away from St. Charles North's sophomore catcher Matt Stevens. The ominous start to the inning devolved into a three-run rally as Wheaton North opened a 4-1 lead.

The Falcons added another run in the sixth when Jack DeAno led off and later scored after reaching on a dropped third strike and going to third on a throwing error by Stevens on the same play.

Stevens was also responsible for Wheaton North's first run of the game after he dropped a point-blank throw from Jimenez on a suicide-squeeze play in the fourth inning.

"Matt Stevens being a sophomore catcher has done a heck of a job all year, but he just kind of lost focus there," St. Charles North coach Todd Genke said. "Zach was making good pitches and you want the kid to swing and miss at it. Sometimes it seemed like Matt was trying to catch the ball instead of block it.

"It's a big game and there's a lot of pressure. Matt Stevens is a 16-year-old kid out there and we expect these guys to play like major-league players, but they're not. But he'll learn from it and he'll be better for it."

Stevens made up for his first miscue by stepping to the plate in top of the fifth and hammering the first pitch over the left-field fence to tie the score at 1.

It appeared the North Stars would add to the rally when they loaded the bases with one out later in the inning, but Nos. 2 and No. 3 hitters Thornton and Ryan Richardson grounded into consecutive fielder's choice outs to end the threat.

St. Charles North was denied a run in similarly frustrating fashion in the third when Thornton singled up the middle with runners on first and second and two outs. As Collin O'Carroll streaked down the third-base line toward the plate, Sam Weinberg was thrown out at second base by Wheaton North center fielder Bobby Munro after making too wide of a turn to end the inning.

"I'm still kind of shocked (Weinberg's mistake) even happened," Genke said. "We had a run ready to score about a foot from the plate, and that took a lot of momentum from us.

"We certainly had our opportunities at the plate and we just didn't take advantage of it."

St. Charles North did add a run in the seventh when sophomore Mike Budka led off with a solo home run.

Hirsch (5-4) took the tough-luck loss for the North Stars after striking out four and walking one while allowing four runs in two innings. Jimenez struck out six and walked two in his four innings.

Jack DeAno (7-1) earned the complete-game win for the Falcons, striking out five, walking two and allowing a pair of earned runs on five hits.

"Jack is always going to compete and he's one of the best competitors we've ever had," Wheaton North coach Dan Schoessling said. "He was going to refuse to lose that game."

Wheaton North advances to play No. 1 seed Schaumburg at 10 a.m. on Saturday.