Huntley's Klein cuts down Barrington
Huntley's Craig Klein proved he's a far better pitcher than he is a carpenter in a 9-1 victory over visiting Barrington Tuesday.
A right-handed starter, Klein recently saw his baseball career flash before his eyes in a wood working class when he slid a board into a belt sander the wrong way and injured his pitching hand.
“It got away from me and flew away and cut my fingers up,” Klein said. “It could have been a lot worse. I could have lost a finger.”
The resulting damage wasn't career threatening, just painful. The skin at the tips of his index and ring fingers was worn off, the centers of two fingernails were ground through to the skin and an abrasion remains on one knuckle.
Still unable to throw a changeup because he can't use his ring finger to grip the baseball, Klein nonetheless managed to hold the Broncos to 1 run on 5 hits on 86 pitches over 6 innings to earn the nonconference victory in his first start of the season.
“It was pretty much all fastballs and curveballs today,” Klein said, glancing down at his right hand. “My hand hurts a little bit, but my arm felt good.”
Klein got out of jams in the second and third innings when errors allowed Barrington leadoff hitters to reach base. In each case, the defense behind him stiffened and stranded runners at second.
Barrington sophomore pitcher Wyatt Trautwein (1-1) wasn't as fortunate. The Broncos committed 4 errors behind him, 3 of which enabled Huntley to score 3 unearned runs.
“So far we've been playing great defense, and today it just didn't happen for whatever reason,” Barrington coach Jim Hawrysko said. “It's a strange game, baseball, and today we just didn't play defense. That led to them being able to run a little bit. They're a pretty athletic team and they run pretty well on the bases. They took advantage of it and they scored a lot of runs that way.”
Trautwein allowed 7 runs (4 earned) on just 3 hits in 5 innings. He finished with 5 walks, 1 hit batsman and 4 strikeouts. He escaped a two-out, bases-loaded situation in the fourth inning unscathed by throwing a curveball for a strikeout.
“I didn't have my greatest stuff, but I battled,” Trautwein said. “I'm happy with how I pitched, but I'm not happy that we lost.”
Huntley (2-2) jumped to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Louisville-bound leadoff hitter Colin Lyman roped a single to center field, moved to second on Nick Corpolongo's sacrifice bunt, advanced to third on Bryce Only's single and scored on Brody Burkhart's groundout.
Huntley scored 3 runs in the second inning, helped by 2 throwing errors by the Barrington shortstop. Lyman made it 4-0 when he scored from second base with two outs before the Broncos could tag another Huntley runner caught in a rundown after a pickoff play at first base.
“I was just looking at coach (Andy Jakubowski) at third,” said Lyman, the only player on either team to collect 2 hits. “He was telling me to go, so I just kept my head down and we got a run. We haven't necessarily been hitting very well so far, but we showed we're a great small-ball team and we got the job done.”
The Red Raiders picked up another run in the third inning. Burkhart reached on a one-out error and later scored from third base on a 2-out wild pitch.
Huntley finished with 7 hits, including a fifth-inning double by No. 5 hitter Mark Skoienczny. He later scored on a squeeze bunt by Jordan Chuipek, which stretched Huntley's lead to 7-0.
Barrington (5-3) scored its only run in the sixth inning. Following 3 straight hits by Chris Coco, Macray Paidomani and Frank Waliczek to open the inning, Justin Dragosz grounded to second base. A double play was awarded due to interference at the second-base bag by the Broncos, though Coco scored from third on the play.
“Today was our most complete game of the season,” Jakubowski said. “I thought we did an excellent job with our bunts and putting pressure on the defense. We took advantage of a couple of mistakes.
“We still need to get better situational-wise — it's been our Achilles' heel. — and we need to clean up our baserunning mistakes. But from a standpoint of pitching, defense and execution, for the most part I was real happy.”