St. Charles North survives late rally from Geneva to defend DuKane Conference title

GENEVA – Keaton Reinke usually finds himself on the mound for St. Charles North at the start of a DuKane Conference series.

But with the junior spending the series opener against Geneva on an official football visit at Stanford, his start got moved to the series finale with the conference title on the line.

To say he was prepared to be in the moment is an understatement.

“This is what I live for,” Reinke said. “I love those pressure moments where I can show what I can do and being out there and control the game with my guys. To pitch with them behind my back, I know we can do great things.”

Reinke went 6⅓ innings, allowing seven hits and three earned runs, which was enough to help the North Stars to a 4-3 victory over the Vikings to win the series and successfully defend their DuKane Conference title.

“He’s just our alpha dog and our leader,” North Stars coach Todd Genke said. “He was so excited for the opportunity and why would you not want to give him the ball in this game. I thought he had electric stuff for us and he put us on his back.”

The North Stars (19-12, 14-7 DuKane) gave Reinke an early lead to work with in the second inning after junior Charlie Major drove in two runs on a ball that skipped past the shortstop.

Junior Mason Netcel added a run in the fifth with a sacrifice fly and junior Cam Chickerneo scored in the top of the seventh on a passed ball to give the North Stars a 4-1 lead.

“You’ve got to put the barrel to ball, but you’ve also got to be able to do the small things,” Genke said. “This is very similar to what a playoff game will be like – low scoring and with good arms on the mound. We pride ourselves on doing those little things which we weren’t doing earlier in the year but are now learning that that’s how we can win a game, especially at this type of magnitude.”

Reinke finished with four strikeouts. His final strikeout was the second out of the second inning. After that, the junior put full trust in his defense behind him.

“I was just trying to get the ball in the strike zone because I know if I do that then my defense can do what they do best and that’s make plays,” Reinke said. “When we make plays on defense, it brings all that momentum to the batter’s box. And that’s what I want for my guys because that’s how we win games.”

Reinke made it to the seventh inning but reached his pitch count with the tying run on second and the winning run on first and only one out.

Junior Josh Kobylinski came in and needed only two pitches to get Miles Dibble to hit a grounder right at him to start a game-ending 1-6-3 double play.

“I was definitely nervous, shaking a little bit, but when I went out there I told the infielders that I had full trust in them,” Kobylinski said. “I told them I’d give them a nice ground ball to get a double play and get out of here. As soon as I got that ball, I knew they would be there for me.”

The Vikings (23-11, 13-8) put the pressure on in the final two innings. Sophomore Noah Hallahan got the team on the board with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth to make it 3-1. Geneva added two more runs in the seventh on RBI hits from senior Ethan Gronberg and sophomore Mason Bruesch to make it a one-run game.

“We just talked about being competitive,” Vikings coach Brad Wendell said. “Reinke was up in the pitch count. Our guys had seen him a couple times through the order. But late in games like this, it’s just tough to get wins, especially against a pitcher like that.”

The Vikings’ second-place finish in the conference was their best finish since 2022, when they also finished second. Wendell said while it was disappointing not to clinch the conference title this season, he’s excited for what the future might bring for the team.

“We have five sophomores starting for us, so I think the future is bright for us,” Wendell said. “We have guys who’ve got to keep working and keep getting better, and it doesn’t get easier just cause you get older. We have a good core going forward, but right now I want to put these seniors out the right way by getting after a regional title. So hopefully we can turn the page fast on this disappointing loss and get after it.”