Baseball: Hard work pays off for Alworth, Geneva in win over St. Charles North
Daniel Alworth was never quite able to get his feet under him last year.
Alworth, Geneva's senior pitcher, missed the beginning of the year as he had to quarantine for 14 days because of being considered a close contact for COVID-19. He returned for four starts before suffering a dislocated right shoulder and a partially torn labrum after fielding a pick play at first base. It ended his season as the Vikings were approaching the playoffs.
"We knew he had a lot in him and he's earned everything he's gotten," Geneva coach Brad Wendell said following the Vikings' 7-4 victory over St. Charles North on Monday.
Monday provided a prime example of Alworth's road to returning as the top pitcher in the Vikings' rotation.
Alworth pitched six scoreless innings, surrendered just two hits, struck out six and had four walks to even the three-game series against the North Stars.
"He's worked his tail off for us," Wendell said. "He's worked really hard and you saw it today ... he's our captain. He's our guy so we're really proud of him and glad he came out and played how he did today."
Alworth, for his part, feels "better than ever."
"It's a year of hard work," Alworth said. "I'm really competitive. A lot of competition. This [DuKane] Conference [has] a lot of good guys out here. I love coming out here and competing showing what I've got."
"[To have a performance like Monday], it's the best feeling in the world," Alworth continued. "Hard work pays off. I worked harder than anybody, I think, this summer and it shows. It shows when I come out here and play."
The Vikings (10-4, 7-1) jumped on North Stars starting pitcher Josh Caccia, who lasted three innings and surrendered five earned runs. Josh Kennedy came in for two relief innings to limit the damage, just surrendering an RBI groundout to Nate Stempowski (2-for-2, two RBI, two walks) in the sixth.
Ryan Huskey finished 1-for-4 with three RBI for the Vikings, more than enough support the way Alworth was throwing.
"I just wanted to get outs [and] throw strikes," Alworth said. "I like to just throw as hard as I can. Wherever it goes, it goes and it works."
In the seventh, the North Stars pushed across four runs on a sacrifice fly from Jayden Lobliner, a two-run double from Josh Collins and another on a wild pitch. But the North Stars (10-7, 5-3) were not able to overcome the eight walks issued by their pitchers in a rough afternoon.
'[Caccia] is a sophomore and he showed a little trepidation out there, which I don't understand because he threw well in the first inning," North Stars coach Todd Genke said. "The story of the game is free bases. We gave them 10 free bases [including steals]. You just can't do that against a good team; a good conference opponent so I'm really disappointed in that."
"Just need to be more competitive on the mound and compete in the strike zone," Genke continued. "Just cannot give free bases away so that was really the difference. [Alworth] threw well ... we haven't been doing that, so I'm not sure what happened today. I like to see the fight at the end, but I wonder where the fight was in the middle."