Baseball: Four Huntley pitchers no-hit Lake Zurich
Baseball no-hitters don't get sneakier than the one that a quartet of Huntley pitchers tossed Saturday morning in chilly Lake Zurich.
An inoperative scoreboard had something to do with that stealthiness.
So did the combined 7 walks issued by the Red Raiders' hurlers.
And Huntley's players, following their 10-0 road victory, celebrated as if they had won a ho-hum game.
"We didn't get a hit?" a surprised Lake Zurich coach Scott De Caprio asked afterward.
But a no-no is something special, no matter how it is achieved.
Huntley sophomore starter Malachi Paplanus - on a pitch count - went 1⅔ innings, striking out 3 and walking 2. Winning pitcher Peyton Barr (1-0) got out of a pair of bases-packed situations (one inherited, the other created) and finished with 5 Ks and 4 walks in 3⅓ innings of work.
Juniors Parker Schuring and Derek Huber each took the mound for an inning. Schuring fanned a Bear, and Huber struck out 1 and walked 1, as Huntley - 32-3 last spring - improved to 12-1.
An inning after leaving two men on base, Huntley scored 5 two-out runs in the top of the second inning. Singles by senior left fielder Nick Martino and junior right fielder Joey Garlin, along with 3 wild pitches and 3 walks, put LZ (2-5) in a hole.
Garlin, junior center fielder Brayden Bakes and junior second baseman Ryan Quinlan each had an RBI in the frame, with the other 2 runs scoring on an error and a wild pitch.
"You can't give extra outs to a good team like Huntley," De Caprio lamented.
Barr relieved Paplanus with 2 outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the second and induced a fly out to center. Two innings later the clutch lefty sandwiched a pair of walks around a hit batter before fanning 2 and getting the third out on an infield pop out.
"Peyton competed hard and did a good job getting us out of those jams," Red Raiders coach Andy Jakubowski said.
Call Barr a spot starter. Or a reliever to start and finish an inning. Or a reliever to extract his team from a sticky situation.
The 5-foot-8, 150-pounder doesn't mind his lack of a definitive role on another potent squad.
"I'll take the ball whenever it's given to me," said Barr, who dubbed his top pitch (curveball) "The Hammer."
A 2-run single by senior Chase Jetel upped Huntley's lead to 8-0 in the sixth inning. Shortly after arriving at first base, he smiled, pumped his raised arms and then waved to cheering Huntley fans in the stands.
Huntley senior Josh Good's RBI double to deep left field capped the scoring in the seventh.
LZ made the top two defensive plays of the game. Junior center fielder Lucas Foley gloved a 2-out, fourth-inning single by Quinlan before throwing out a baserunner at home; sophomore third baseman Ryan Kondrad fielded a sharp grounder and made a strong throw to first base for the first out in the fifth inning.
De Caprio lauded senior Evan Kemper's footwork in left field.
LZ senior second baseman Jack Kondrad drew 2 walks. Bears senior starting pitcher Baylor Rowell (0-1) took the loss.