St. Charles North baseball coach Todd Genke says he has put Josh Kobylinski in tough spots all season. This might have been the toughest.

Tying run on first base, bottom of the seventh, one out, and who walks up the plate with the chance to play hero Wednesday? None other than Huntley’s Drew Borkowski with an opportunity for the Red Raiders to walk off the North Stars with his third homer in the teams’ Class 4A McHenry Sectional semifinal.

“I saw he was going up, and I’m like, ‘Man, what are we going to do here?’ ” Kobylinski said. “You got to tip your hat sometimes. He had a couple of really good swings [earlier]. I was thinking he’s going to be super antsy. He’s got two home runs. This kid is just looking to hit another bomb. So I’m like, ‘I’m going to work him outside, not give him much to hit.’ And the pitches I threw him were, honestly, nothing to hit.”

Kobylinski got Borkowski to hit a ground ball to third baseman Mason Netcel, who threw to second baseman Nolan Macholz for the force out. Borkowski beat the throw to first base, but the umpire ruled pinch runner Ben Wilgreen slid through the base and interfered with Macholz. Both Wilgreen and Borkowski were ruled out, giving third-seeded St. Charles North a 6-5 win over the top seed.

“I was just trying to hit the ball hard on the ground somewhere, find a hole, move the runner to hopefully third or even score him, tie us up, and I’m either at second base or first base,” Borkowski said. “That’s just my approach every time – hit the ball hard, hopefully up the middle, and what happens, happens.”

The North Stars (23-12-1) had more to celebrate than their thrilling win, which earned them a berth in Saturday’s 11 a.m. sectional final against No. 5 Barrington (26-12). TCU-bound Matt Ritchie made his season pitching debut, and while he didn’t factor into the decision, St. Charles North’s fans erupted with cheers when the 6-foot-3 righty came in to start the Huntley fifth.

Ritchie dislocated his non-throwing shoulder in March when he slid back into second base in a game and hit a player’s knee.

With the North Stars leading 4-2, Ritchie retired the first two hitters he faced. He hit the next batter, Brady Klepfer (2 for 3), and then induced a routine ground ball. The throw bounced away from the first baseman, however, giving Huntley (30-8) life, and the Raiders capitalized.

Leo Banchin ripped a two-run double into the left field corner. Then after the North Stars intentionally walked Borkowski – who homered to left-center in the second with none out and to dead center in the fourth with none on – Diego Herrera hit an opposite-field single into right to give Huntley a 5-4 lead.

“I was just trying to get him in the game,” Genke said of Ritchie. “That was a tough spot, but I thought he threw the ball well. We should have been out of the inning. We just didn’t make the throw across to the chest.”

Kobylinski relieved Ritchie and got the next batter to end the fifth.

“It was great,” Ritchie said of his return to the mound, which included a strikeout of the first batter he faced. “I love playing with these guys and am just glad we got another game.”

Ritchie’s teammates responded in the top of the sixth against reliever Sean Dabe. Chase Ferguson walked, Julian Harmon (2 for 2) singled, and Tyler Gleason drew a walk off reliever Travis Dudycha to load the bases. Reed Raczka bounced into a 6-4-3 double play, but Ferguson scored to tie the score.

Leadoff man Nicholas Gnutek then lined a single into right-center, driving in Harmon with the go-ahead run. Gnutek had hit a sacrifice fly in the third to tie the score at 1-all.

St. Charles North had its “end-of-the-season” banquet Tuesday night, and Genke reminded his players that their season wasn’t over.

“We kept saying, ‘Why not us? Why not us?’ ” Genke said. “We’ve won a lot of one-run games, and we’ve been in a lot of tight games, played a lot of really good competition just to get us to this point. We knew Huntley was a very good team. I just love the way we competed.”

Kobylinski allowed a two-out single to Aiden Eickelmann in the sixth but stranded him at first base. In the Huntley seventh, Bianchin (2 for 4) singled with one out.

Kobylinski said he threw a backdoor two-seam fastball to get Borkowski to ground to third.

“He just comes through,” Genke said of the senior right-hander the North Stars call ‘Koby.’ “He’s always in the zone, he’s a really good athlete, and he battles.”

Huntley pitchers walked eight, and the team also committed a throwing error on a pick-off attempt.

“You can’t give a good team like that, that many freebies,” said coach Andy Jakubowski, whose Raiders won the Fox Valley Conference championship. “They took advantage of them. Our guys did a tremendous job of fighting back, and we just came up a little bit short.”

Langdon Straub had a sacrifice fly and a double for the North Stars, who will seek their first sectional title since 2019, when they finished second in Class 4A.

“I love these guys,” Ritchie said. “I thought we outplayed [Huntley]. We knew we were the better team from the start. I can’t credit these guys enough for coming up clutch in big situations. It was just a great game.”