Huntley puts up 10 against Dundee-Crown again
After two days, 20 runs allowed and two losses, you don’t have to tell Dundee-Crown’s baseball team about the potent Huntley offense.
On Friday the Chargers witnessed Huntley take a 3-0 lead into the sixth inning only for the Red Raiders to score 7 runs in a 10-0 win in six innings.
Game 2 Saturday had a similar theme. Although Dundee-Crown fought hard for three innings, Friday’s sixth became Saturday’s fourth and fifth as Huntley crossed 3 runs in both, with Nick Cusumano capping the fifth with a 3-run blast to left to beat the Chargers 10-5 in a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division game in Carpentersville.
“Once we start to get it going, we really get it going. We really started to bust it open,” said Cusumano. “We really started hitting it where we’re supposed to be hitting it.
“We like to be on the whole game starting in inning one, rather than coming in the fourth and fifth inning.”
Cusumano had 3 RBI while Nebraska recruit Bryce Only drove in a run and had 2 stolen bases and 2 runs scored. Colin Lyman also had an RBI for Huntley.
Huntley (16-2, 9-2) scored 8 runs in the final 3 innings, beginning with 2 walks to start the fourth. Tyler Mindak’s sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third. Jake Wagner hit into a fielder’s choice to score a run and then Lyman’s single to right made it 4-2.
Only’s single two batters later tacked on another run, but Cusumano’s 3-run homer in the fifth opened the flood gates.
His blast came on a 2-0 count and made D-C pitcher Ahren Ludwig pay after he walked Matt Sullivan and hit Kam Sallee with a pitch to start the frame.
“I was looking straight fastball and I got it and I put my best swing on (it) and it happened to go,” said Cusumano.
Huntley’s 1-2-3 hitters of Lyman, Only and Illinois recruit Mark Skonieczny were 4-for-12 with 2 walks and 2 stolen bases. Josh Perkins (1-0) pitched effectively in his first appearance of the year, throwing 5 innings of 2-hit ball. He allowed 3 runs with only 1 earned on 1 walk and 2 strikeouts.
“We do a pretty good job of manufacturing runs,” said Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski. “I thought (Mindak’s) bunt, especially moving the runners over, gave us an opportunity for the top of our lineup to come up to do what they did and they played well today.”
D-C’s run in the first came on an error on a sharp-hit ball by Luis Garcia, which allowed Garrett Ryan to score with two outs.
In the third, a Fabian Gutierrez single set the table for Dylan Kissack to drive Gutierrez home on a drive to center with two outs.
Those innings however fell victim to pickoffs, as D-C (6-10, 4-8) was stymied on the basepaths, ending threats in the process.
“We had a big first-and-third situation, good count on the hitter and we got picked off at first base and I don’t know if he tripped over his shoes got caught; I’m not sure what happened. But in a situation like that we can’t afford to get picked off,” said D-C coach Jon Anderson. “We walked three, plus two hit batsmen score, plus an error, that’s 6 runs we kind of just gave them. And a team like that you can’t give them extra outs.”
Ryan Suwanski had a sixth-inning RBI triple for the Chargers. Tyler Lewan suffered the loss after giving up 5 earned runs in 3 innings.