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South Elgin's Nutof dominates St. Charles North

April 18, 2014

By Sean Duncan
Executive Director

SOUTH ELGIN – Right-hander Ryan Nutof doesn’t receive the hype of some other highly considered draft prospects in Illinois.

But he should.

Nutof was dominant in his start Thursday, throwing a three-hitter to lead South Elgin to a 3-2 victory over visiting St. Charles North in an Upstate Eight crossover. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Michigan recruit struck out 12 and walked three, two of which came in the seventh. None of the runs was earned.

Nutof held his velocity for the entire game and, more impressively, he pounded the strike zone with three pitches, including a much-improved curveball that showed late bite. South Elgin (4-2) needed a stellar performance from Nutof to hold off a scrappy St. Charles North (8-2) club.

Nutof outdueled St. Charles North senior RHP Frankie Farry, who yielded five hits and no earned runs. The Carthage College recruit struck out five with no walks in his complete-game effort. Both pitchers worked around less-than-stellar defensive play. No runs in the game were earned, and there were, unofficially, 10 errors committed in the game.

South Elgin junior SS Dane Toppel was the offensive sparkplug for the Storm. The 5-foot-9 Toppel was responsible for all three runs – driving in two and scoring one. In the first inning, Toppel reached on an error to lead off the inning, took an extra base when the outfielder hesitated, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Antonio Danesi. In the second inning, Toppel drove in a run on a groundout to shortstop. In the sixth inning, he gave the Storm some wiggle room when he had a run-scoring single up the middle. Toppel also stole two bases.

Nutof also had a pair of singles for the Storm.

St. Charles North tied the game at 1-1 in the second inning on freshman SS Zach Mettetal’s RBI single. The North Stars made it interesting in the top of the seventh, thanks to two walks and an error closed the gap to 3-2 with runners on first and third. But Nutof induced a groundout to Toppel to end the game. Kansas State-bound junior 1B Cory Wright had a double and a walk for St. Charles North.

More in-depth notes from the Game will be posted in the Illinois Scout Blog later.

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