Huntley takes advantage of Cary-Grove mistakes to win sectional title
In a single-elimination tournament mistakes can prove costly.
That certainly was the case Saturday for the Cary-Grove baseball team. And Huntley took advantage.
The Red Raiders captured their first sectional championship, scoring the game-winning run on the Trojans' third error of the game, with a 5-4 victory in the Class 4A Larkin sectional title game.
"There's no room for mistakes in the high school tournament," said Trojans coach Don Sutherland, whose team took fourth in Class 4A last season.
"When you do those things, you put yourself in tough situations."
Huntley (28-9) will play Wheaton North at 7 p.m. Monday at Rockford RiverHawks Stadium with a trip to the state semifinals on the line. Wheaton North beat St. Charles East 2-0 Saturday to win the SCE sectional title.
The Red Raiders trailed 4-2 after the top of the fourth. They got one run back in the bottom of the fourth on 3 consecutive two-out singles, the final coming from Matthew Szytz to drive in Colin Lyman. Chris Klein tied the game in the fifth with a solo home run to left field.
"I was expecting to shoot the ball the other way," said Klein, who went 3-for-4 and had 2 RBI. "They were giving me off-speed (pitches) and with a lefty pitcher you have to put the ball opposite field. I got under the ball and it just went over."
Michael Devoe (2-4) came in in relief for the bottom of the sixth for Cary-Grove. He walked Lyman, who was leading off the inning. It was the only walk of the game. Zachary Staab sacrificed Lyman to second. Szytz dribbled one back to Devoe, who went to first to get the second out instead of trying to get Lyman at third. Andre Sopena then grounded a ball to shortstop, but it was not handled and Lyman scored.
"I knew I just had to put it in play," Sopena said. "We needed that run."
The Trojans (25-13) got a runner on with two outs in the seventh when Nick Richter was hit by a pitch. But Jeremy Ahillen got Eric Chandler to ground back to the mound for the final out.
Ahillen (8-1) gave up 4 runs in the first four innings, but settled down and allowed only two runners in the final three innings. The other runner was picked off first by Huntley catcher Phillip Pupillo after a failed bunt attempt, a problem the Trojans had several times in the game.
Ahillen allowed 8 hits, walked none and struck out two for the victory.
"He gets better as the innings go on," Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said. "He battled. He didn't have his A-plus stuff."
Huntley scored twice in the bottom of the first to take an early 2-0 lead on run-scoring singles from Klein and Pupillo. The Trojans scored the next 4 runs. A Steve Hapanovich sacrifice fly got the Trojans on the board in the second. Chris Waylock, who had 3 hits, had a solo home run in the third. Hapanovich and Nick Taylor had run-scoring singles in the fourth as Cary-Grove took the 4-2 lead that the Red Raiders chipped away at with single runs in each of their final three innings.