Softball: Huntley dumps Crystal Lake South

Sometimes it's the little things that decide games.

Huntley did more of them than Crystal Lake South on Thursday, and as a result the Red Raiders walked away with a 5-2 victory in Fox Valley Conference Valley Division softball action in Huntley.

Hayley O'Mara had 3 hits, including a home run, and drove in 3 runs for Huntley (9-4, 4-0), and Tiffany Giese shut down the Gators for her eighth win on the season.

Carly Chovanec homered for the Gators.

"We hit the ball well," said Huntley coach Mark Petryniec. "I would have liked to have seen a couple more plays. We ran ourselves out of an inning there. But overall we executed and did what we needed to do to get a W."

Giese (8-3) walked 2 and struck out 6, allowing just 6 hits.

After Chovanec's homer gave South (4-7, 1-3) the lead, the Raiders played small ball to take the lead for good. O'Mara singled in a run, Taylor Pacana plated another on a fielder's choice grounder, and Sofia Tenuta drove in another tally with a sacrifice fly.

Samantha Schettl's RBI single got the Gators within a run in the fourth, so O'Mara's blast over the fence in left center, with Rylie Porretto on base, provided some welcome insurance.

It was another frustrating narrow defeat for the Gators.

"When you lose a close game like this and you play well for six innings, it's extraordinarily frustrating," said South coach Scott Busam. "They're young girls and they're learning, and they're learning on the fly in some cases, but when they give us outs, we've got to get them.

"When we lose these close games like this, it's always a matter of executing one or two extra plays throughout the course of seven innings. It always comes down to just one or two plays."

Jessica Shields had a pair of hits for Huntley.