While baseball is marked by all kinds of statistics, there are certain things in a player that can’t be measured.

St. Charles East’s Seth Winkler had to rely on those intangibles Friday.

Winkler, the DuKane Conference’s player of the year last spring, allowed six runs in the first two innings against Geneva. That included five runs in the second inning alone.

It was arguably the roughest start to a game in his varsity career.

“I just personally was trying to persevere through it,” Winkler said. “It’s the game of baseball. Innings like that are going to happen, even in the major leagues.

“One pitch at a time and try to chip away was how I looked at it.”

That’s exactly what Winkler did — and the Saints followed. They rallied from a 6-0 deficit to win a wild one with a 7-6 DuKane Conference victory over the Vikings in St. Charles.

Helping himself, Winkler singled in a run for St. Charles East (15-1, 10-0), stole two bases and scored the tying run in the bottom of the seventh on Mike Sharko’s single. James Brennan also homered for the Saints, while Clay Jensen went 2-for-4.

Nate Stempowski hit a three-run homer for Geneva (11-8, 6-4). Sam Seykora scored two runs.

With the bases loaded, Eddie Herrera then squared around for a squeeze bunt and got hit in the backside by a pitch, scoring pinch runner Devin Minarik with the winning tally.

St. Charles East coach Len Asquini was impressed with Winkler’s fortitude.

“It talks a lot about his mental toughness and his makeup,” Asquini said. “He’s able to go ahead and flush it. After a couple of OK at-bats, he was pulling off, struck out and hit a weak ground ball to the pitcher.

“We talked to him about it, and he stayed on a ball (in the seventh) and popped it into center field.”

Still, the day didn’t start off well for Winkler. He allowed a run in the first. Then in the second Geneva sent 10 batters to the plate, scoring five runs on six hits.

Stempowski’s three-run homer was the big swing.

“It was a really rough start,” Winkler said. “They were getting a lot of lucky hits in the second inning and then the home run from Nate. (It was a) good at-bat. He’s a good player.

“I was just trying to keep pounding the zone and keep them off their toes, which was my whole goal. I just needed to relax on the mound. I was a lot more comfortable after that.”

Indeed, Winkler retired 10 of the final 12 batters he faced before ceding to reliever Cole Ridgway, who earned the win.

“My whole goal on the mound was to give my team a chance to hopefully come back and walk it off, like we just did,” Winkler said.

It was 6-1 going into the bottom of the fifth as Seth Kisner kept the Vikings in the lead.

He ended up striking out three, allowing two earned runs on six hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings. He left with a 6-2 lead, but one of his inherited runners scored in the sixth.

“I’m just super proud of my guys,” Geneva coach Brad Wendell said. “They played great baseball for six innings against a good team. We need to learn how to finish.

“We haven’t been here before and we have to figure it out.”

A walk and an error set up Winkler’s RBI single in the seventh. After Brennan was intentionally walked, Sharko and Herrera took it from there.

“It was just never give up, keep the energy up, keep on going,” Winkler said. “I guarantee you we’ll look back at the end of the season and say, ‘Man, that Geneva game was crazy.’ ”

Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.