Keller, Prairie Ridge subdue Huntley
Huntley entered Saturday’s Fox Valley Conference Valley Division baseball matchup at Prairie Ridge with an offensive theme of scoring early and often.
The Red Raiders accomplished that by scoring 3 runs in the first two innings. But those were only runs Huntley could muster against Prairie Ridge senior pitcher Lucas Keller, who blanked the Red Raiders during the final five innings. The end result was a come-from-behind 5-3 win by PR.
“Our situational hitting has been our Achilles’ heel this season, but we did a great job in that area at the beginning of the game,” said Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski. “We got the sacrifice bunts down, we had a sacrifice fly and we moved runners up a base. Our approach the last five innings wasn’t the best, but their pitcher really settled down and pitched well.”
Huntley (11-9, 4-4) jumped on Keller for 2 runs in the first on an RBI single by Mark Skoniezny and a sacrifice fly by Bryce Only. In the second, the Red Raiders scored on an RBI double by Tyler Albright. Huntley could only manage 4 hits without scoring a run during the final five innings against Keller, who struck out 6 and walked 1 in 7 innings of work.
PR (15-5, 7-1) scored in the first off losing pitcher Justin Gundlach on an infield ground out by Matt Krenz. The Wolves seized control of the game with 3 in the second. Corey Peterson led off the inning with a long homer over the left-field fence, Brad Schillinger stroked an RBI single and the Wolves scored the final run of the inning on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze by Jordan Getzelman. Getzelman drove in his second run of the game with an RBI single in the fifth. The talented PR leadoff man ended the day 2-for-3 with 2 RBI, 2 stolen bases, a double and a run scored.
“(Getzelman) is a very good leadoff man and he seems like he is always on base or getting a hit,” said Jakubowski “He had five hits in the two games this weekend and I am glad we don’t have to face him any more this season.”
Gundlach gave up 5 runs on 5 hits in absorbing the loss. Craig Klein was stellar in relief, allowing just 1 single in 2 innings of work. He struck out 3 without allowing a walk.