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Sports

North Shore Baseball: Raiders Win First Regional Championship in 92 Years

With an 11-run outburst in the first inning, North Shore put St. Benedict away early in a 16-0 win.

Playing with the added pressure of a championship drought is never easy. Just ask the Chicago Cubs how things shook out in 1969, 1984 and 2003, among others.

But North Shore’s 92-year run without a regional championship in baseball didn’t seem to faze the Raiders on Saturday afternoon. North Shore erupted for 11 runs in the first inning and Jake Kann pitched a five-inning shutout to give the Raiders a 16-0 win against St. Benedict and earn the school’s first ever baseball regional championship.

“The last two years we lost to Westminster Christian by one run each year and those were heart-breaking losses,” senior shortstop Jake Gordon said. “We just wanted to win it this year for the guys the last two years who didn’t get to win it and it’s a great honor to do it my senior year.”

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Unlike in their regional semifinal game against Morgan Park Academy, the Raiders came out of the gates quick. The first five batters reached base with and scored thanks to a combination of patience at the plate and speedy base-running.

After three consecutive walks later in the inning, Zach March crushed a two-run triple into the right-center gap to put North Shore up 8-0. Matt Touhy followed with an RBI double, chasing St. Benedict starting pitcher Adam Nota after only one-third of an inning.

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Gordon welcomed the Bengals’ reliever with an RBI triple and Michael Jaharis scored him on a sacrifice fly to cap the first-inning scoring. In all, North Shore sent 14 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first.

“We’ve only had a couple games where we’ve been hitting all throughout the lineup, usually one part picks up the other,” North Shore coach Martin Freeman said. “But today it was huge to have the bottom of the order come up big.”

The only trouble Kann faced all game was in top of the first. St. Benedict threatened with runners on second and third and one out, but Kann induced a comebacker to the pitcher for the second out and struck out St. Benedict’s Trent Martin with a high fastball to end the threat.

“I just had to throw it over the plate, had a good defense behind me, and wanted to work it around the zone,” Kann said.

After that Kann cruised through the next four innings, allowing only three hits and two walks during his five innings of work. The junior right-hander struck out seven batters in the win.

North Shore tacked on five more runs in the bottom of the third inning. David Deuble provided the big hit with a two-RBI double to score Ryan Nolan and Kann.

March finished 2-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored and two RBIs. Touhy was 1-for-2 with two runs scored, an RBI and a stolen base.

North Shore will face Marquette or Putnam County in the sectional semi-finals on Wednesday night at Putnam County. Gordon is expected to be the starting pitcher for North Shore.

“For us to play the way we played, gel together and have this type of success, this is the sweetest season I’ve been a part of,” Freeman said. “We’ve been battle-tested, we’ve played from behind. We’re ready to play that tougher competition that’s ahead.”

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