Crystal Lake S. stymies Huntley again
Two days after Crystal Lake South teammate Zack Geib held the Huntley offense to 3 hits in a 2-1 victory, right-hander Jordan Van Dyck tossed a complete-game 4-hitter to beat the struggling Red Raiders by the same score Thursday.
Van Dyck (7-0) became the first Fox Valley area pitcher to reach 7 victories this season. The senior used his fastball, changeup and curveball to strike out 4 hitters and walk only one. He finalized the 2-game sweep of the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division series by stranding the potential tying run at third base in the bottom of the seventh, courtesy of a flyball to right field off the bat of pinch hitter Bryce Only.
“What a leader for us, coming through and getting the last out against a pretty good stick at the end,” Gators coach Brian Bogda said of Van Dyck. “I gave him the option (of an intentional walk), and he said he wanted to go at him and get the out. Sometimes you have to take chances. That one worked out for us.”
The 6-foot-2, 180-pound North Central College recruit isn't one to shy away from such challenges.
“I wanted the opportunity,” said Van Dyck, who lowered his ERA to 0.98 in 42 innings. “(Only) is a great player. I had some looks at him when I was in the field on Tuesday. I just tried to get ahead and hit my spots.”
The victory was the third straight and seventh in eight games for Crystal Lake South (16-7, 8-2).
Huntley slipped to 11-11, 4-6. The Red Raiders dropped their fifth straight game and seventh in eight tries despite a solid outing by Craig Klein (3-3). He limited a CL South offense that entered the game hitting .352 as a team to 6 hits in 6 innings. He left 8 CL South baserunners stranded, 6 in scoring position.
“We did an excellent job with pitching and defense,” Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said. “It was another pitchers' duel. Offensively, we're struggling. I thought we came with a lot of intensity and passion today, which is something we haven't seen in the last two weeks.
“Offensively, we need to come along and get better. These last 13 games we need to be playing our best baseball at the end and get ourselves in position to make a run.”
Louisville recruit Colin Lyman (2-for-3, double) had the only multihit game for Huntley.
“(Van Dyck) mixes speeds pretty well, and the coaches for South in general call pitches backward,” Lyman said. “They're throwing off-speed when they're behind in the count, which is tough for our hitters because they're not used to it. That might have been part of the problem.”
CL South catcher Dom Winiecki snapped a 1-1 tie in the top of the seventh by sending Klein's final pitch to the wall in center field for a double. The baseball was bobbled by Huntley's center fielder when he tried to pick it up. That error allowed Jake Bigos to round third and score all the way from first base after drawing a leadoff walk.
“I was sitting on a fastball because he had thrown a lot of first-pitch fastballs to me,” Winiecki said. “I've been struggling at the plate in a mini-slump lately, so I was sitting on a pitch to rip.”
The Gators took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning. Nick Severino led off with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout by Jake Byron and scored on Nick Martin's double.
Huntley tied the game 1-1 in the fifth, helped by an error by Van Dyck. After Brody Burkhart opened the inning with a single, Van Dyck's low pickoff throw to first got down the line. Burkhart advanced 2 bases and later scored on Kameron Sallee's sacrifice fly.