Regardless of how things go this spring, St. Charles North’s Parker Reinke realizes that he has some big decisions to make after the baseball season.
The junior outfielder is coming off a successful showing in basketball, but he has achieved quite a bit of notoriety around the Illinois baseball circles.
“We’ll see,” said Reinke, who was all-conference in baseball as a sophomore. “Basketball was my first love for sure, but I’m starting to get more of a bigger love for baseball.
“They’re pretty equal right now — I’m not going to lie.”
Performances like the one Reinke put together Wednesday may continue to swing the pendulum of his future college sport in a certain direction.
Reinke produced a two-run double and a three-run homer as the North Stars earned an 8-2 nonconference victory in six innings over South Elgin at Judson’s Hoffer Field in Elgin.
Colin Ryder went 2-for-3 for St. Charles North (1-1), while Jaden Harmon and Jackson Spring each scored a pair of runs.
Quinn Bradford singled in pinch-runner Logan Bialek for one of the runs for South Elgin (0-1). Jordan Green scored the other run on an error.
Reinke’s homer, meanwhile, went to straightaway left field in a five-run fifth inning.
“I was kind of hunting fastball because he had just thrown me a fastball and I missed it, so I thought he was going to throw me another one,” Reinke said. “He threw me one knee high, and I took advantage of it.”
Reinke lifted the ball into the fog and mist and over the fence, scoring both Harmon and Spring.
“I had no clue that was going out,” Reinke said. “I thought it was a pop fly.”
The breakout was good to see for St. Charles North coach Todd Genke, who is pinning a ton of the team’s offensive hopes this season on Reinke.
“He’s going to be right in the middle of everything we do,” Genke said. “He’s a very electric athlete, multisport athlete, and that’s what we expect out of him.
“I think if he’s willing to be coached and understands what it takes to succeed, the sky is the limit for him. I was excited to see him get going a little bit.”
After the North Stars were no-hit Tuesday by Marmion, Reinke was happy to see Wednesday’s turnaround. They had nine hits.
“The coaches sat us down and told us to reset, put that game behind us,” Reinke said. “We took an hour of hitting before this game, just to get our head straight into what we have to do, and it really paid off.
“It set the tone for the area like, ‘We’re legit.'”
After falling behind 3-0, South Elgin made it interesting with runs in the fourth and fifth innings.
St. Charles North, however, broke the game open with the five runs in the fifth. The game was called due to weather conditions after six innings.
“I was very happy with the energy and what they brought,” South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. “I think we scrapped. For our first game, we took the training wheels off a little bit.
“I was very happy with the kids. We have stuff to clean up and the kids know that. They know that some of the mistakes cost us a little bit.”
Reinke leads a strong junior class for St. Charles North, a team that was dominated by seniors last season. He welcomes that challenge.
“I look to be a leader, but it’s all based on all of us and how well we work together,” Reinke said. “We’re all great friends. We all work together really well, on the field and off the field.
“Last year, we got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. This year, I’m trying to get our team going far and try to steamroll through it.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
