Huntley pulls surprise on Jacobs
Strange things tend to happen right around seeding and pairings days.
On Tuesday, Jacobs’ softball team pulled off a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division co-leader Prairie Ridge, which then lost again on Wednesday to Crystal Lake South.
The Golden Eagles came home on Wednesday to host Huntley in Jacobs’ second annual Pink Out game. The festivities included each team wearing pink T-shirts, pink balloons all around and a concession stand and bake sale. A local pizza joint joined in as well, with a portion of the proceeds going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
What Wednesday did not include was another Jacobs win.
Freshman Haley Spannraft allowed Jacobs just 6 hits and sophomore Brittany Koss drove in sophomore Tamara Funke with the eventual game-winning run as Huntley, the No. 4 seed in the upcoming 4-team Huntley regional and the last-place team in the FVC Valley, upended Jacobs 2-1 in Algonquin.
“All we ask for is improvement each and every game and today a lot of things went right for Huntley,” said Red Raiders coach Mark Petryniec.
The Red Raiders (6-16, 2-6) got a stellar performance from Spannraft in the circle. She struck out 8, walked 2 and, a day after Jacobs saw PR fireballer Kirsten Stevens, kept the Golden Eagles off balance all afternoon with a variety of well-placed off-speed pitches.
“I was trying to hit the outside corner,” said Spannraft. “My drop ball worked and my changeup worked real well. It feels really good.”
Jacobs senior Tori Berg pitched well enough through 5 innings but the Golden Eagles (14-12, 3-6) never got a runner past second base after the first inning.
The Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when senior Katie Kirker legged out a triple to the left-field corner and scored on Alyssa Lach’s singled to left. But Lach, who went to second on a passed ball, was thrown out trying to score on Nicky Chapa’s single and Jacobs only got 3 more hits the rest of the game.
“We got our hits but unfortunately we hit the ball to people and didn’t score runs,” said Jacobs coach Jeremy Bauer. “It’s disappointing to come off a great game (Tuesday) and then come out emotionally flat today. On this league if you can’t score more than one run you’re going to lose.”
Huntley tied the game in the fourth with two outs. Funke singled to left, stole second and scored when Angela Tribuzio (2-fror-3, 2B) beat out an infield hit and Jacobs made a throwing error.
The Red Raiders then took the lead in the sixth when Funke drew a one-out walk, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Koss’ two-out single to right.
Spannraft’s only two walks came in the bottom of the seventh. After she got the first two batters out, Courtney Cotugno and Jacquelyn Hedger drew walks but Spannraft got a roller back to the mound for the third out.
“Every outing she’s getting better,” said Petryniec of Spannraft. “She hit her spots today and kept them off balance.”
Randi Peterson added a 3-for-4 effort at the plate for Huntley and Lach had 2 hits for Jacobs.