PREP BASEBALL NORTH 7, NORTHEASTERN 1
Monke stars in 'last first game' for North
Senior strikes out 11, while Storey goes 3-for-3 as the Panthers open final season before merger with a win.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
SPRINGFIELD — Forty-four days after pitchers and catchers reported for the first baseball practice, North took the field for the first game of the season Wednesday, April 2.
"Hey, Doug, this is it," head coach Mark Stoll said to his brother.
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Julius Storey (11) of North High School jumps up to click his heels together in celebration of a 7-1 win over Northeastern High School in North's 'last first game' Wednesday. The game is the first in the last season before North and South High Schools combine in the 2008-2009 school year. 
Get latest headlines via RSS feeds"The last first game," one player said.
The Panthers know the significance of this season — the last for Mark Stoll after 27 seasons and the last for North High School after 48 years — and they got the 2008 season off on the right cleat with a 7-1 victory at Northeastern's Eddie Wiseman-Errick Lawrence Memorial Field.
Senior Mitch Monke struck out 11 batters in five innings and surrendered only one hit.
"We were just excited to finally get outside and play," Monke said. "They gave me a really good lead, so it made me more comfortable on the mound. It was just a good team effort all around."
"Mitch just came out and threw strikes," Mark Stoll said. "His fastball was really on. You could tell he's a senior. He had a lot of confidence."
Neither team scored in the first three innings. North tried to get its bats going with words.
"Let's get the sticks out," one player said.
"Let's help Mitch out," said another.
In the fourth, freshman Jimmy Powell and Monke had RBI singles.
Then the Panthers broke the game wide open with four runs in the fifth. Consecutive doubles by Julius Storey and Joey Borders drove in three of the runs.
Storey had one hit in the first 10 games last season, but he went 3-for-3 against the Jets.
"That was a little rough," said Storey, a senior shortstop. "It looks like I got off to a little better start this year."
The Jets and Panthers played an error-free game. For both teams, it was a long preseason. The Jets got in two scrimmages last week, but otherwise had been outside for about three hours, coach Chris Kitchen said.
"Everybody's been in hitting off the machines," Kitchen said. "Even live pitching inside in the cage, it's not like being out here in the sky. It's a lot different. So right now, the pitchers are ahead of the batters, which is really not normally the case."
