Baseball: Defense helps Huntley take opener from Jacobs

The Jacobs and Huntley baseball teams both possess a slew of bullpen talent, but Huntley reliever Kyle Morgan was more effective Wednesday - and got more help from his defense - than the Jacobs pen in the Red Raiders' 4-2 victory.

Huntley winning pitcher Cameron Reed and Jacobs starting pitcher Justin Lavrisa both pitched well in the opener of a 3-game Fox Valley Conference series with a cold, steady wind blowing straight out to center field.

Reed held Jacobs (12-3, 5-2) to 2 earned runs on 2 hits and 3 walks in 6 innings. The senior right-hander struck out 5.

Meanwhile, Lavrisa held Huntley (12-3, 6-1) to 2 runs (1 earned) on 3 hits and 3 walks in 4.2 innings. Lavrisa matched Reed's 5 strikeouts but did not factor in the decision.

Reed was humming along so smoothly he didn't allow a hit until the top of the fifth inning, but it was a big one. Huntley was leading 1-0 with two men on base when Jacobs No. 3 hitter Ryan McGorrian turned the game around. He belted a two-out fastball to the center-field wall for a 2-run double.

"He got me with a lot of curveballs in my first at-bat, so I was sitting fastball," said McGorrian, who hit 10 home runs in summer ball. "I saw an opportunity to hit a fastball. I had one strike so I didn't have to shorten up my swing."

Huntley immediately countered in the bottom of the inning with the game-tying run. Joe Boland drew a leadoff walk from Lavrisa, moved to second on Jake Goldstein's sacrifice bunt, to third on Joe Rizzo's sacrifice fly and scored on Brad Model's two-out double.

Jacobs reliever Austin Asplen, who pitched ⅓ of an inning in Monday's eight-inning win over Hampshire, got out of the fifth with no further damage. However, the junior opened the Huntley sixth by issuing a leadoff walk to Brad Maurer, who soon ended up on third base after Asplen's errant pickoff throw to first.

Jacobs coach Jamie Murray then called on reliever Dylan Cummings, who threw 27 pitches in Monday's 8-7 win over Hampshire.

With Red Raiders at second and third and no outs, Tyler Koss chopped Cummings' 2-2 pitch toward third base. The slow roller was misplayed for an error and Maurer scored uncontested with the go-ahead run. Huntley added a fourth run on pinch hitter Jeff Heinrich's one-out groundout.

"I knew their bullpen was a little bit thin from going extra innings against Hampshire," Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said. "We wanted to get into their bullpen."

With a 2-run lead, Jakubowski called on Morgan, a left-hander, to start the seventh inning with Nebraska-bound left-hander slugger Mike Addante due up third. Morgan began the inning by issuing a leadoff walk, but he fanned Addante for the second out with the potential tying run at second.

Morgan, normally a starting pitcher who was making his second relief appearance, induced a popup to Goldstein at shortstop to notch his first save.

"Whenever my name is called upon I like to shine in my time," said Morgan I just knew I had to come in and throw strikes and get the save."