Huntley leaning a little to the left this year

Yell, "Hey, lefty," around the Huntley baseball diamond this season and three starting pitchers might pop their heads up and say, "Who, me?"

High school baseball programs can go years without the benefit of a good, starting left-handed pitcher, so the rare roster confluence of starters Nathan Prokuski, Tanner Funke and Craig Lipp -- three southpaws at the top of the Huntley rotation -- has given the 2008 Red Raiders a decidedly leftward lean.

"I would imagine it is going to be an advantage from our perspective because a lot of people don't see lefties that often," third-year Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said. "If they know they might see two or three in a series, it could really help us.

"But ultimately, our guys are going to have to throw strikes."

That's what Prokuski has done in his first two starts this season. The senior ace, who was selected to compete in the Stevenson Showcase, is off to a 2-0 start after a 13-3 victory over Belvidere last week and a 4-2 win against Streamwood on Wednesday. He struck out 9 hitters in each win.

That's already a quantitative improvement over last season, when Prokuski struck out 40 batters in 78 innings. He finished his junior season with a record of 3-7 and an ERA of 4.70.

There's a good chance Prokuski and Funke could be viewed as co-aces by season's end.

Funke, a junior, is a similar pitcher to Prokuski in that both throw in the mid-to-upper 80s and each has a nice changeup that keeps hitters off-balance and guessing.

"If I feel my fastball moving, I'll throw it a ton," Prokuski said, "but if not, I'll rely on my changeup a lot."

Last year Funke was the No. 1 pitcher for the Huntley sophomore team before he was brought up to the varsity to make two late-season starts. In one of those starting nods, the McHenry County Hurricanes product demonstrated his potential.

Against Prairie Ridge, which was 18-9 at the time, Funke pitched a 2-0, 7-hit shutout over a two-day span to win a game that was suspended halfway through.

"I gained a lot of confidence last year," Funke said. "I came up and pitched that game and before I knew it I was warming up in a regional."

However, Funke's first outing this season against Barrington will go down as a learning experience. He walked 5 and was pulled after ¿ of an inning.

The Huntley defense didn't help Funke out in that particular game by committing 2 errors.

"That was a rough start, but I have a lot of confidence that he'll be just fine," Jakubowski said. "He was just a little too geeked up and tried to overthrow instead of locating. It happens."

Lipp is Huntley's No. 3 pitcher and the team's top returning hitter with a .356 average. In 35 games last season, he smacked 14 doubles, 3 triples, 6 home runs and drove in 35.

Lipp is the sneakiest of the three lefty pitchers, more apt to rely on his sharp breaking curveball than his fastball, which crosses the plate a few miles an hour slower than Prokuski's or Funke's. His normal operating procedure is to keep hitters so off balance they get themselves out by lunging at the curveball and beating it into the ground.

"I'm not really overpowering, but I can throw my curveball for a strike," Lipp said. "I like to put the ball in play and let them hit it. I trust my defense."

As a sophomore last season, Lipp went 2-2 with an ERA of 1.97 in 21½ innings.

However, despite their rare left-sided pitching prowess, the Red Raiders realize they are underdogs in the Fox Division behind a Prairie Ridge team loaded with five Division-I talents. Nevertheless, no one in Huntley is shaking in his boots.

"I think we'll be able to compete with them," Lipp said. "It's good competition, but I think we're ready for them. We just have to make sure we play good defense and put balls in play. Then we'll be OK. PR is pretty tough, but so is Johnsburg with (pitchers) C.J. Fiedorowicz and (Jerad) Grundy."

In fact, solid pitching should be the rule throughout the Fox Division of the Fox Valley Conference, where strong starting pitching awaits at Prairie Ridge, Huntley, Johnsburg and Crystal Lake Central.

"We're all going to be in the same boat," Jakubowski said. "So, I kind of look at it like anybody can beat anybody on any given day. The team with the best record is going to be left standing. Anybody can win on any given day."

The good news for Prokuski, Funke and Lipp is that someone always has their backs: closer Jeremy Grap.

A senior with a sharp breaking curveball, Grap went 5-2 last season. This season the 6-foot-2 junior will serve as the team's designated closer. He used that curve to strike out 2 Streamwood hitters in the seventh inning on Wednesday to earn a three at-bat save.

The Red Raiders know the road ahead is lined with speed bumps, but they believe they are ready to contend for a division title and make a deep push into the Class 3A playoffs.

"I think this year is going to be a real big year for us," Prokuski said. "It's definitely going to be interesting."