North Stars win battle of St. Charles

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There was a lot more at stake than just bragging rights when crosstown rivals St. Charles North and St. Charles East met Tuesday.

The Saints had a chance to widen their lead atop the Upstate Eight Conference softball standings, but instead, the host North Stars tightened the race considerably with a 6-4 come-from-behind victory.

North improved to 6-2 in the UEC to pull to within a half game of the Saints, who fell to 6-1.

"This is big for us," said North coach April Stary. "It makes things real interesting and it should give us a lot of confidence the rest of the way."

The North Stars (10-5) trailed 3-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning when they rallied for five runs. North was helped by three costly Saints errors.

"We knew we were behind the eight ball," said Stary. "Our mind-set was we had to get the lead out, but we have shown before that when the going gets tough, this team sinks its teeth in and it doesn't let go."

Taylor Russell doubled in the first run of the inning for the North Stars. Juliaclaire Plezbert then reached on an error, forcing East to change pitchers as Katie Stengler came in for Gaby Moe.

Ashley Seering greeted Stengler with a single up the middle that scored Russell to tie the game at 3.

With Seering on first and Plezbert on third, Seering stole second and Plezbert wound up scoring the go-ahead run when the throw to second sailed into center field. The North Stars added two more runs on a Saints error and an RBI groundout by Amanda Ciran.

Russell had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI doubles. Amanda Engel (6-0) worked her way in and out of trouble to go the distance.

Steph Roan, Rachel Edwards, Rae Anne Payleitner and Stengler all had RBI hits for the Saints (10-4).

"We didn't make the plays we needed to make," East coach Kelly Barnett said. "I know it's a big game, but we have to look at it as just being one loss, and no more than that."