St. Charles North stays composed, holds off Providence Catholic to win season opener

WHEATON — St. Charles North pitcher Emerson Miller was only a little nervous that his first varsity pitching experience was going to be against the reigning Class 4A state champions.

With the team trailing Providence Catholic 3-1 after two innings, the left-handed junior came onto the mound in relief, with the goal of keeping the Celtics' hitters in check.

“There were some nerves, but sometimes you’ve just got to pitch,” Miller said. “I just had to pretend like I was in the backyard with my dad throwing a ball. That was pretty much my thought process.”

Miller did just that, as he limited the Celtics to just one run in the final five frames, while the North Stars capitalized on some fielding mistakes on offense to come out with a 6-4 victory at Lee Pfund Stadium.

“He’s got really good composure, good makeup and really likes to change speeds with his secondary pitches,” North Stars coach Todd Genke said. “Even when he’s not changing speeds, he kept the ball down and we got a really good result, so I’m very proud of him.”

Miller finished with a final line of 4⅓ innings pitched, giving up two hits and one earned run while striking out only one batter for North. But even if he wasn’t striking people out, he was giving his defense plenty of chances to make plays.

“I know I’m not the guy to blow by people, so I wanted to use my off-speed pitches a lot,” Miller said. “But I also want to thank my team, they did a great job backing me up on defense. I’m really thankful for them for that.

North (1-0) would score five consecutive runs through the middle parts of the game to take a 6-3 lead heading into the final frame. Leading the charge offensively for them was senior Matt Kelly, who went 3 for 3 at the plate, including a game-tying RBI single in the fourth inning that scored junior Keaton Reinke. He would also score the go-ahead run later that inning on a fielding error.

“He doesn’t say a whole lot, but he works incredibly hard and is incredibly dedicated,” Genke said. “He’s one of our three returning seniors, so for him to go out against a team like that and go 3 for 3 and play sound defense at third base, I’m just proud of him.”

Providence Catholic (1-1) had a chance to tie the game up in the top of the seventh inning after loading the bases on two separate occasions in the seventh inning but after giving up a run on a sac fly from Blake Jenner, junior Ben Auer would close the door on the game with a strikeout of Sam Webb.

“We had some good at-bats, and some not so good at-bats,” Providence coach Mark Smith said. “Bottom line is their pitchers made big pitches when they needed to. And it’s not about how many hits you get, it’s when you get them.”

The seventh inning wasn’t the only time the Celtics loaded the bags in the game. Providence juiced the bags in three of the first four innings of the game, but only managed three runs off a fielder’s choice that scored Cincinnati commit Enzo Infelise in the first, an RBI single from Eddie Olszta and a wild pitch that scored Infelise in the second.

“We were into it at the start, then we tailed off a bit before dying out,” Smith said. “But we showed some heart there at the end, and that’s a good thing.

“Even with all these returners that we have, we’re still trying to figure some things out. It’s all correctable stuff though. It’s Game 2 and still 42°F outside. So the positive is that we got in good situations to learn from."

The Celtics suffered a similar fate to the North Stars last season, falling 6-2 at the same ballpark on April 12. But Smith said considering how the season ended for them, there’s no need to panic.

“I told their coaches that maybe this is good luck,” Smith said. “I’ll take a loss against them every year if it means something good’s going to happen at the end.”