Cary-Grove finally gets to Huntley
It takes a special performance to upset the high-powered offense of Cary-Grove’s softball team, and Huntley freshman pitcher Haley Spannraft nearly had one of those afternoons.
Unfortunately for No. 4 Huntley, it was almost.
Through 5 innings, Spannraft worked on what could have been a gem to remember, giving it her all during a 4-hit shutout. Cary-Grove, the Class 4A Huntley regional top seed, failed to get runners in scoring position across in the first, fourth and fifth innings.
But Cary-Grove’s bats came alive in the sixth. The Trojans capitalized on an error on Jamie Deering’s pop fly to left, which opened up the flood gates to a 4-run inning that saw Lindsay Efflandt drive in the first and winning run on a single to lift Cary-Grove into Saturday’s regional final with a 4-0 win in Huntley Tuesday afternoon.
Cary-Grove (27-7) will play today’s winner of No. 2 Jacobs (20-14) and No. 3 Crystal Lake South (21-10) at 9 a.m. Saturday for the regional title.
Efflandt (24-6), who pitched 6 innings of 2-hit ball with 8 strikeouts, helped her own cause when the offense badly needed it.
“I’m just trying to do what I can for my team,” said Efflandt. “That was my job at that moment so I knew I had to hit it to the right side or get a base hit so we could score (Deering). I don’t like to think about it as helping my own cause. It’s just different jobs at different times.”
Those other times came when she struck out four-straight spanning the first and second innings. In the fourth when Huntley had a runner on second with two outs, Efflandt got Ashley Laxner on a strikeout to end that threat.
“When you face a caliber pitcher like Lindsay, you’ve got to manufacturer runs and claw and scratch,” Huntley coach Mark Petryniec said.
Efflandt’s defense was also equal. A prime example was when Sara Markelonis dove at third to make a game-saving grab of Angela Tribuzio’s liner in the fifth.
“Our defense was stellar the whole game,” said Trojans coach Tammy Olson, whose team didn’t commit an error. “I was really proud of that. Lindsay does what Lindsay does. She throws it hard, Sarah (Leudo) called a wonderful game and kept them off.”
The Red Raiders (10-23) threatened in the fifth with a Spannraft single. After Markelonis’ grab and a sacrifice by Ashley Knutsen to get the runner to second, the next batter, Tamara Funke, appeared to beat out the throw at first and was called safe initially. After an appeal, the umpires ruled she was out, spoiling Huntley’s best chance.
“It’s something I haven’t seen. In the end they got the call right,” Huntley coach Mark Petryniec said. “I have never seen a base umpire not ask for help in my previous years. Hey, I got to fight for my team out there.” Efflandt’s RBI single and 2-straight hits by Lisa Semro and Leudo (RBI) made it 2-0. Cary-Grove tacked on 2 more but Petryniec was pleased with his Spannraft’s performance.
“They’re a great hitting team and (Spannraft) did exactly what I wanted her to do,” Petryniec said. “She’s competitive, she’s a battler, she’s not happy with this so hopefully they take it as a learning experience and hopefully next year we’re on the other side of this.”