Baseball: Deischer, Cary-Grove shut down Huntley
The Huntley baseball team missed its best opportunity to score against Cary-Grove pitcher Robert Deischer before he settled in Tuesday.
The future North Central College right-hander escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first inning and gave the Red Raiders few more chances over 6 innings of a 3-0 Fox Valley Conference victory.
Left-hander Quinn Priester then shut the door in the seventh. After Eastern Illinois-bound slugger Ryan Ignoffo snapped a scoreless tie with his 2-run triple in the bottom of the sixth, Priester - a TCU-committed fireballer making his second relief appearance since returning from tendinitis - threw a scoreless inning with 2 strikeouts to earn his first save for Cary-Grove (12-3, 8-3).
Deischer improved to 3-0 and lowered his earned-run average to 2.17 in 27 innings by holding Huntley (12-4, 4-3) scoreless on 3 hits and 2 walks.
He struck out 6 but didn't seem destined for a long outing.
Deischer struggled through a rocky first inning despite "a great bullpen," Cary-Grove coach Don Sutherland said. His fastball was sailing high and his normally biting curveball was sharp as a marble. He beaned Huntley leadoff batter Hunter Rumachik with a pitch, allowed a two-out single to cleanup man Kamrin Hoffman and walked No. 5 batter Michael Talesky to load the bases.
He got out of it by prompting a groundball to first baseman Billy Blanks. Then he started feeling like himself.
"Throughout the game my stuff started working," Deischer said. "I started locating my fastball low and inside where I like to go. My curveball was dropping. It was pretty nasty today. I really liked the outcome of it."
Huntley starting pitcher Eli Paplanus (2-1) matched Deischer until the sixth, when he had runners at the corners after a one-out walk to No. 9 hitter Steve Calamari and a single to center field by Tristan Atkins. Atkins' line drive might have been a double-play ball off the bat, but it hit Paplanus' foot and deflected out of the reach of Huntley second baseman Zach Model.
Pitching to Ignoffo, who carries a .611 slugging percentage, Paplanus fell behind 2-0. The Cary-Grove right-handed batter laced the next pitch for an opposite-field triple to the fence in right center.
"Best thing that could have happened in that situation," said Ignoffo, now batting .333 (18-for-33) with 8 doubles, 2 triples, a home run and 13 RBI.
Both runs scored and Ignoffo crossed the plate on an ensuing infield error to give the Trojans a 3-0 lead. Priester then closed it out.
"It's great to be back. I've missed it a lot," Priester said.
Kyle Maurer doubled to lead off the Huntley second inning but was stranded at third. Jordan Goldstein doubled with two outs in the seventh. Otherwise, Huntley was limited to 2 singles and 2 walks. The Trojans are 5-1 in their last 6 games during which they've allowed only 6 runs and tossed 3 shutouts.
"It was a great pitchers' duel on both sides." Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said. "I mean, it was well played, it was quick, it was efficient. It was actually a fun game to watch. Both teams were playing really good defense. They executed a little bit better than us. We had four opportunities to move runners over and we didn't get a job done."