Top Stories of 2019: St. Charles North baseball, St. Charles East softball take second in state

Riding dominant pitching and opportunistic at-bats, the St. Charles East softball and St. Charles North baseball teams earned second-place finishes at their respective Class 4A state tournaments in June.

Led by Kane County Chronicle Softball Player of the Year Katie Arrambide, the Saints reached the finals, falling 1-0 to Huntley.

Arrambide, a recent Harvard verbal commit, rocketed up the program history books. Arrambide posted a 17-8 record with a 1.67 ERA. She also smashed the program record with 234 strikeouts.

Across town, St. Charles North, led by Kane County Chronicle Baseball Player of the Year Egon Hein, posted a new program-best state finish. The North Stars lost to Edwardsville 3-2 in the Class 4A final.

Hein, a senior infielder, hit .415. He had a .570 slugging percentage and 32 RBI on 44 hits.

His teammate, Nick DeMarco, had high praise for Hein.

“There’s not a whole lot of people that are like Egon Hein,” DeMarco said. “They only come around once in a while. He’s just the type of kid that you look up to. ... Obviously, his actions on the field speak for themselves. More important [is] the person he is and obviously the leader he was.”