St. Charles North’s offense gets going, tallies seven runs over final two innings to secure win over Lake Park

ST. CHARLES — St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin knew that his team could find another gear.

Despite the North Stars’ 11-4 record heading into Wednesday’s matchup against Lake Park, Poulin felt that while it was an impressive slate, the team had barely begun to scratch the surface of their potential as the season begins to shift into the second half of play.

But against a tough team and DuKane Conference opponent like the Lancers, North showed they had plenty more to give.

Led by senior Mack Patterson and sophomore Julianna Kouba, the North Stars put up three runs in the fifth inning and four runs in the sixth to help secure a 9-1 victory over the Lancers.

“This was just a glimpse of what we can do offensively,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. “You’re not going to do that to Lake Park very often. But we were able to control at-bats and square some balls up against one of the top teams of the state.”

Leading the charge in the game for North was Patterson, a Loyola-Chicago commit who went 4 for 4 in the game and drove in three runs.

“She is just so steady and such a student of the game,” Poulin said. “She’s going to be all over these at-bats the same way she would be if she went 0 for 4. She just keeps working and grinding it out and has a high softball IQ and will keep getting better from it.”

Patterson got the offense going for the North Stars (12-4, 4-2 DuKane Conference) early on in the contest, slapping an RBI double in her first at-bat to make give North the early advantage. Two batters later, she would make it 2-0 after scoring on a bunt single from junior Abby Zawadski.

“These past four years, I’ve been trying to be a leader,” Patterson said. “And now that I’m a senior, I feel like I’m finally able to just go out, contribute on my part, and then it gets the momentum going and everybody follows. And once that gets going, it helps everyone out.”

The senior would get the momentum going again in the fifth inning with an RBI single, and would continue it in the sixth, following a two-run double from senior Ivy Gleason with another run-scoring base hit.

“It was awesome to see all of our hard work just come alive,” Patterson said. “Everyone was helping each other out and picking each other up. And it just felt so nice to see everything start to fall in place.”

Kouba also finished the day with three RBIs for the North Stars. The sophomore had a two-run home run in the fifth inning and had a sacrifice fly in the sixth, marking her fifth consecutive game with multiple RBIs.

“Kouba is just on fire,” Poulin said. “She’s as good of a hitter as you’ll see, and we’re just going to let her keep hitting the ball the way she has been.”

The Lancers (12-4, 3-2) had some chances to get runs on the board over the final two innings, getting multiple runners on base in those innings, but couldn’t get the key hit to push more runs across.

“It’s always a dog fight when we play them, and I love playing against them,” Lancers coach Lynsey Gunnells said. “But the last couple of games, we’ve been struggling to get that key hit. We also missed getting some bunts down. So little things like that can make a big difference when you play a great team like St. Charles North.

Senior Ari O’Connell drove in the Lancers only run on the day with a solo home run to right field in the third inning. The Illinois-Chicago commit had three of the team’s six hits on the day, adding a double and a single.

“She’s having a great senior year for us,” Gunnells said. “She’s at eight home runs for us already and she’s a great leadoff hitter for us. She’s just really stepping up for us, and it’s good to see.”