Baseball: Huntley gets past Cary-Grove in 9

Posted April 26, 2018 1:00 am

By Dave Hess Daily Herald Correspondent

There wasn't the least bit of panic.

Down 8-2 after two innings Huntley, behind outstanding relief pitching along with timely hitting, rallied for a 12-11 nine-inning win over Cary-Grove in Fox Valley Conference baseball action in Cary Thursday afternoon. The marathon affair lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes.

"We knew there was five innings left in the game and we had time to chip away at the lead," said Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski. "The bullpen knows their role and they pitched to perfection and gave us a chance to win. We started to swing the bats and our situational hitting was outstanding."

The Trojans (12-5, 8-5) chased Huntley starter Nick Laxner out of the game after an inning and a third.

After Huntley scored twice in the first, the Trojans responded with two in the bottom of the inning on RBI singles by Ryan Ignoffo and Kyle Ives.

Cary-Grove broke the game open with 6 runs in the second spearheaded by 2-RBI singles from Ives and Matt Breig and run-scoring singles from Quinn Priester and Steve Calamari.

The Huntley bullpen trio of Grant Yaminsky, Evan Tomco and winning pitcher Davis Pasco held the Trojans to 3 runs on 5 hits in 7⅔ innings of work.

"We all know our role in the bullpen," said Pasco. "Our job is to throw strikes and give our offense a chance to come back and win the game. I knew when we were down we had a chance to come back. It was a great win."

Trailing 9-5 heading into the sixth inning, Huntley (14-4, 6-3) took the lead 10-9 with 5 runs keyed by a 2-RBI single by Jordan Goldstein and run scoring singles by Zach Model and Mike Talesky.

The Trojans tied the game at 10 in the bottom of the inning on a bases-loaded walk to losing pitcher Jake McDuff.

Neither team scored in the seventh and eighth innings before the Red Raiders scored twice in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Maurer and a bases-loaded walk to Goldstein, who was 4-for-5 with 4 runs scored and 5 RBI. Andrew Henkle also added a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt.

"We scored a run without a hit," said Jakubowski. "We had a perfect sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly. We have had trouble with situational hitting all season but when we needed it the kids came through."

The Trojans scored a run in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Billy Blank but Pasco buckled down and got a strikeout to end the game.

"I told the kids when we had the lead that it wasn't a big enough lead," said Cary-Grove coach Don Sutherland. "We couldn't let up because Huntley would come back. We got too comfortable."