Baseball: Lang, Crystal Lake South nip Huntley
Throw strikes and let your defense work.
That was the mission of Crystal Lake South junior pitcher Kyle Lang.
Mission accomplished.
Retiring the first 17 Huntley batters he faced, Lang struck out 2 without a walk in tossing a 1-hit shutout as the host Gators edged the visiting Red Raiders 1-0 in a key Fox Valley Conference game in Crystal Lake Thursday afternoon.
The defense behind Lang (6-0) didn't commit an error.
"I could just throw the pitch I wanted to throw and know my defense would make the play," said Lang. "They make the easy and tough plays. I totally trust them. I felt really strong warming up. All my pitches were really working. I kept my curveball low in the zone and got a lot of ground balls and easy pop ups."
Lang, who was perfect for 5⅔ innings. yielded his only hit, a 2-out pinch-hit single by Matt Rodriguez.
"Kyle was outstanding and was mixing his pitches early and had good control," said South coach Brian Bogda. "He really did a great job of keeping their good hitters off stride. He did a great job of pitching to contact and our defense was outstanding behind him. This was a great win against a very good Huntley team."
Crystal Lake South (26-2, 17-2), which managed 7 hits 6 singles off tough-luck loser Kyle Morgan, scored the only run of the game on a 2-out RBI single by No. 9 hitter Brent Chubb.
"I don't mind batting ninth," said Chubb. "I just try to help the team win. I got a good curveball to hit, tried to make contact and went with the pitch to right field."
Bogda likes Chubb batting ninth in the order.
'Brent is like having a second leadoff hitter," said Bogda. "He always makes good contact and does a great job of getting on base. He had a great at-bat and came up with the big hit."
Noah Tyrell (triple) and leadoff hitter Gordon Bright collected 2 hits each for the winners.
Morgan, who absorbed the loss for the Red Raiders (23-5, 15-3), allowed 1 run on 7 hits. He struck out 4 without allowing a walk.
"Both pitchers and both defenses were outstanding," said Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski. "Kyle pitched great for us. Lang was a little better. It was a great high school game between two very good teams. They got a few more hits than we did. We moved the ball pretty well. We had a few more pop ups than I would like."