St. Charles E. downs St. Charles N.
It should come as no surprise that a left-handed pitcher helped lead St. Charles East’s baseball team to one of its biggest victories of the season Tuesday night.
This time, it was Dan Ditusa’s turn to join unbeaten ace Wes Benjamin in the spotlight, as the Seton Hall-bound southpaw tossed 5 1/3 strong innings of 3-hit ball during the Saints’ 7-2 win over cross-town rival St. Charles North (22-9, 16-6) at Elfstrom Stadium in Geneva.
Playing in front of a boisterous crowd, Ditusa (6-2) struck out 9, walked 6, hit a pair of batters, and worked out of several mini-jams before giving way to junior reliever Johnny Hondlik, who retired 5 consecutive batters while picking up the save.
“When we get out early in the first few innings, it makes some of juniors and sophomores a little more comfortable,” said Ditusa. “I think that was huge today.”
Ditusa was staked to a 2-0 lead before even taking the mound.
Joe Hoscheit led off the game with an infield single before Jordan Hayes smacked a line drive that caromed off of North Stars starting pitcher John Loynachan (2-3) toward second base to put runners on first and second.
After the runners advanced to second and third on a groundout, Tony Rallo drove in Hoscheit with a grounder to second before Hayes scored on a wild pitch.
“Loynachan got hit on the (left) forearm on that ball hit up the middle,” said North Stars coach Todd Genke. “I had a bad feeling he wasn’t going to be as effective as we hoped. I feel bad for him because he’s been looking forward to this game for a long time.”
The Saints (22-9, 18-5) played some small ball during their 3-run second while also benefiting from a pair of St. Charles North errors.
Matt Harris led off with a walk, took second on a sacrifice bunt and advanced to third on Ryan Shaffrey’s bunt single before an infield error allowed Harris to score the game’s third run.
Another North Stars miscue on Hayes’ safety squeeze allowed Shaffrey to cross the plate, and Rallo’s RBI infield single upped the Saints’ lead to 5-0.
“I was very pleased with our quality at-bats, especially early in the game — moving guys over and getting RBI,” said Saints coach Dave Haskins.
That was more than enough run support for Ditusa, who enjoyed playing before the season’s biggest crowd.
“It was just a fun environment,” said Ditusa, who received a standing ovation from the Saints’ fans after leaving the game. “This is where you want to throw, and I want to be in a similar environment when I play next year. I definitely want to be in more positions like this.
“I threw a couple more change-ups than usual but the strikeout pitch was definitely my fastball in on the hands and knees,” added Ditusa. “I threw a couple curveballs in the dirt and Jake (Sheley) did a great job blocking behind the plate.”
“He had a great outing,” Haskins said of Ditusa. “He threw the ball well to both sides of the plate and had good velocity.”
Sheley (2-for-2) sliced an RBI double in the fifth before the Saints added an insurance run in the seventh — courtesy of the North Stars’ fourth error.
“We did a lot of very uncharacteristic things,” said Genke, who received a strong 5-inning relief stint from Ryan Jones. “We dropped pop-ups, we got picked off at second base and struck out 11 times.”
The win, coupled with Streamwood’s 3-1 loss to Geneva, moved the Saints into a share of first place with the Sabres in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division race.
The 3-game cross-town series will resume today at St. Charles East.