Huntley blanks Dundee-Crown

Great pitching and some timely hitting were a winning formula for Huntley’s softball team Thursday.

Freshman Haley Spannraft tossed a 1-hitter and Randi Peterson and Ashton Cattenhead each had 2-run hits to lead the Red Raiders past Dundee-Crown 7-0 in Fox Valley Conference Valley Division action.

Huntley won its first Valley Division game of the season, and the Raiders hope they are putting it together at the right time.

“The goal all season is to get better each and every day,” said Huntley coach Mark Petryniec. “It’s been a work in progress. We’re pretty young, and the improvement has been incredible on this team.

“Hopefully we can build off this win and have some success next week before going into regionals.”

Spannraft struck out 5 and didn’t walk a batter. She got plenty of offensive support.

The Raiders broke the game open with 3 runs in the third. After Angela Tribuzio and Brittany Koss led off with infield hits and advanced on Ashley Laxner’s sacrifice, Peterson belted a double to deep left field to score both runners. Peterson came in on Mackenzie Brown’s hit.

The Raiders (5-17, 1-8) added 3 more in the sixth. Cattenhead had a 2-run single and Tribuzzio’s second hit of the game completed the scoring.

Koss and Peterson also had 2 hits apiece for the Raiders.

And Spannraft kept mowing down the Chargers (7-16, 1-8).

“She’s progressing really nicely,” said Petryniec of Spannraft. “She was on today, hitting her spots, changing speeds. She was very effective today.”

“We just didn’t hit the ball today,” said Chargers coach Tracy Beatty. “I felt like defensively we did a decent job, but offensively we didn’t hit the ball. You can’t win ballgames unless you hit.”

D-C starter Melany Love retired the Raiders in order three times, but ran into trouble in the two big innings.