Going into Saturday’s 3A home regional final, Sterling looked to continue a roll where it won eight of their past 11 games.

The Golden Warriors tried to capture that late magic again, and one play at the plate could have gone Sterling’s way to tie the game in the sixth inning against Belvidere North, but the Golden Warriors came up short 3-2 to end their season at 14-19.

Sterling was down 3-0 before Eli Penne led off the sixth with a single, and after Landon Kukowski followed with a walk, Penne was brought home on an errant throw after a bunt from Wyatt Cassens. Kukowski scored on a sacrifice fly by Adrian Monarrez before the next batter, Cale Nettleton, popped out to shallow right field.

Golden Warriors coach Darwin Nettleton gave the speedy Cassens a signal to tag up, but the throw from North’s Cooper Zuroske made it to catcher Wyatt Paulsen with about three feet to spare for the final out of the inning. The situation was a close call that Nettleton admitted responsibility for.

“As I told the kids, it’s on me,” Nettleton said. “I sent Wyatt on that short fly ball in right field, and he’s the fastest kid on the team. It’s hindsight, 20/20, that you keep him there and let [the next batter] Ethan Todd bring him home, and I guess I was just forcing the defense to make a play – and they did, tip your cap to them.”

“We’re a little disappointed that it’s the end, but we held out,” Cassens added. “We should have come out with that one, but we didn’t.”

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth – Sterling being the visiting team by virtue of playoff seeding – when Austin Hackworth’s sacrifice bunt scored Andrew Bucci, who walked with one out. Bucci advanced to third when AJ Scholl reached base on a throwing error. North (20-11) had a sacrifice bunt in the third inning to move a runner to scoring position.

The small-ball style of play was something North coach Connor Walsh sought to make a big part of his team this season.

“We got our bunts down and we played defense,” Walsh said. “We’ve preached from the offseason that we wanted to move more toward being a small-ball team, get the bunts down and take care of the baseball, and they did that tonight.”

North’s other two runs came in the fifth on a single by Brayden Lewis and a double by Bucci to score Lewis. Lewis’ RBI single was a hard-hit liner down the line that Tyler McCafferty deflected just enough to prevent it from being extra bases. Cooper Zuroske opened the inning with a walk and went to second on a wild pitch, and with one out and first base open, Noah Tauscher hit into a fielder’s choice to second baseman Eli Penne, who threw to McCafferty at third to throw out Zuroske by a foot-and-a-half.

“That’s a play where I suppose if he’s safe, people would go, ‘What’s he doing,’ but with a one-hop ball to the right side, I trust our guys on defense to make plays like that,” coach Nettleton said of the force play, “and Tyler McCafferty makes a nice stop on a ball that’s probably a double if he doesn’t field it.”

North’s Rylan Zuroske pitched four scoreless innings and completed the game with two runs (one earned), two hits, three walks and two strikeouts. Despite Sterling’s late comeback, having a lead made him feel more comfortable on the mound, he said.

“I felt way more comfortable when I was on the mound; it allowed me to throw a lot more strikes and be more consistent,” Zuroske said. “We played pretty sound defensively, and that helps a lot when you’re on the mound.”

Sterling’s Jack Saathoff took the loss with three runs (two earned), five hits, two walks and two strikeouts.

“Jack was really good today,” Nettleton said. “We only committed one error. When you go back through the beginning of May, our defense has been lights out, and our pitching has limited the number of walks. We were pounding the strike zone in May, and our guys were able to settle into specific roles as far as pitching and defense.”

North tied a school record with its 20th win, won its first regional since 2017, and advances to Wednesday’s Sycamore Sectional, where it will face Geneva, a 5-3 winner Saturday over Burlington Central in a semifinal.

“It was absolutely incredible,” North coach Connor Walsh said. “These guys have battled all year. We saw that through the first couple of innings, and they stuck with their approaches and came through. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.”

Nettleton is proud of how his team played the last one-third of the year.

“We went 8-4 in May, and this was another close loss, but I’m proud of the effort that the kids put in,” Nettleton said. “We have a really great group of seniors that were committed and wanted to be successful, and they were. You can ask any coach, if you can end the season playing .667 baseball, or in any sport, you’d be thrilled because that’s when you want to be playing your best.”

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Sterling’s Tyler McCafferty and Belvidere North’s Cooper Zuroske collide at third Saturday, May 30, 2026, at the Class 3A Sterling baseball sectional final. Zuroske was out on the play. (Alex T. Paschal)