Paige Murray comes through at the plate, in the circle to help St. Charles North beat St. Charles East

ST. CHARLES — Paige Murray has usually had just one role for St. Charles North in her first three years — pitching.

But in her senior season, she’s had a chance to prove her versatility both as a pitcher and a hitter for the North Stars.

And in a crosstown rivalry game against St. Charles East, she got to put it on full display.

Murray doubled in the go-ahead run in the third inning and added 10 strikeouts in the circle to help the North Stars take a 2-1 victory over the Saints on Friday.

“It’s been a new role this year, but I’m just trying to help my team out in any way possible,” Murray said. “I just want to help in any way at all. It was a good pitch, and I just swung at it.”

With two outs in the third inning and sophomore Julianna Kouba standing at first, Murray lined an 0-1 pitch just over the glove of East’s right fielder. And despite the near-perfect relay to the plate, Kouba managed to beat the tag at the plate to give North a 2-1 lead.

“As soon as I saw Kouba slide in and be called safe, it was pure joy,” Murray said. “After that, it just gave us a lot more motivation for the rest of the game, and we used that to pull out a win.”

Kouba got the North Stars (9-3, 3-1 DuKane Conference) on the board with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning, and finished the game getting on base all three times with two hits and a walk.

The sophomore, who celebrated her 16th birthday Thursday, said that after a successful game against Lake Park last season on her 15th birthday, she wanted to channel that same mind set this time around, especially against a rival.

“As I was going to sleep last night, I was just trying to lock in early and think about what I wanted to do,” Kouba said. “I did the job that I needed to do at the plate and on the base paths, it just felt really good.”

Meanwhile, Murray kept the North Stars in front. After letting up a solo home run in the top of the second inning that tied the game up at 1-1, Murray allowed just two hits the rest of the way, collecting all 10 of her strikeouts during that stretch.

“She’s just so mentally strong and tough, and she always moves on to the next one, whether it’s positive or negative,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. “There hasn’t been a moment yet where she’s not in it. She always uses her experiences to be stronger. She’s just unreal to me.”

Her outing was just enough to outlast Saints (9-9, 0-3) pitcher Makayla Van Dinther, who finished with eight strikeouts and allowed just six hits over her six innings of work.

“She pitched really well, and our defense played really well behind her as well,” Saints coach Jarod Gutesha said. “We knew it was going to be a tight-scoring contest. One hit either way or the result of a close play could have been the difference in that.”

Lexi Majkszak had the team’s only run in the contest, launching a solo home run over the left-field fence in the second inning that tied the game at 1-1.

“That was huge for Lexi, especially after going down early,” Gutesha said. “She’s got the ability and the power and has had a good season so far. That was great for her to have a big moment like that to tie the ball game up.”