Baseball: Chris Bingham shines in South Elgin win

Updated: April 12, 2012 11:02PM

Ever since being embarrassed in a 16-0 loss at St. Charles East a week ago, South Elgin has gone on a roll.

It continued on Thursday with the Storm winning its third straight game with a 4-1 victory at St. Charles North in Upstate Eight action. A big reason why has been stellar pitching. South Elgin has allowed a total of just four runs in the three wins.

Junior Chris Bingham (1-1) followed up outstanding outings by Eric Stazy and David Palmer earlier this week with a gem of his own, firing a four-hit complete game.

“It’s been night and day since that East game,” South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. “We just put that one behind us and got back to practice. The pitching this week has been great.

“It seems like each of the pitchers are trying to outdo the other one. I’m just happy we are back to playing baseball the way it should be played. It’s been with pitching and defense. Chris did a nice job and we were throwing some leather around out there today.”

Bingham was on the mound to start the East game a week ago and made an early exit after being roughed up. However, he bounced back nicely, striking out four and not walking a batter against the North Stars.

“I just tried to forget all about that last outing,” Bingham said. “Today I had good location with my two-seam fastball. I was able to throw a lot of strikes and I kept them off balance with my changeup.”

The Storm (7-2, 4-1) took advantage of some opportunities on offense. A two-out error by the North Stars in the first inning allowed the Storm to score its first run, plating Ryan Ford, who led off the inning with a single. South Elgin added another run in the inning with an RBI double to right-center by Andrew Weedman.

The North Stars scored their only run of the game in the bottom of the first. South Elgin tacked on a run in the second. Nevan Jeske drew a leadoff walk and later scored on an RBI single by Ford. The Storm scored its final run in the fourth. David Goins walked with one out, stole second, went to third on a balk, and scored on a wild pitch.

The North Stars (5-6-1, 3-2) stranded four runners, had two other runners thrown out on the bases, and never had the leadoff man reach base in a single inning.

“We are just really scuffling at the plate right now,” North coach Todd Genke said. “We are doing everything we can to turn it around. We might be trying to do too much. They are pressing at the plate trying to get two hits at a time. I have to tip my hat to their pitcher. He kept us off balance just enough.”

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