Goins' good eye lifts South Elgin past Huntley

The smallest person on the field came up really big Saturday for the South Elgin baseball team.

David Goins reached base all four times up, scored 2 runs and drew a bases-loaded, game-winning walk as the Storm rallied to beat Huntley, 6-5.

“It was intense,” Goins said of his final at-bat. “My team, them cheering on the bench, really got me going and got me the confidence to do it.”

Goins walked to lead off the bottom of the third. After back-to-back errors on sacrifice bunts loaded the bases, Andrew Weedman drove in Goins and Ryan Ford with a single to left. Michael Murphy also scored as the 3-run inning game the Storm (3-1) a 3-1 lead.

Huntley, which only scored one run in the first despite having the bases loaded with no outs, reclaimed the lead with 3 runs in the top of the fourth. Two runs scored on an error and Nick Corpolongo drove in Jordan Chuipek with a single. In the bottom of the fourth, Goins reached on a fielder's choice, stole second and scored on a Ford single to tie the game at 4-4.

“The last couple of games (Goins) has really started hitting well,” Storm coach Jim Kating said. “He's doing a fantastic job right now.”

The Red Raiders (4-3), who had their four-game win streak snapped, took a 5-4 lead in the seventh. Bryce Only had an one-out double. Jake Perkins drove in the go-ahead run with a single to right.

Weedman led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and went to second on an error. After a sacrifice bunt, David Palmer hit a ground ball to third. Weedman went on contact and scored as the throw to home hit him, allowing Palmer to go to second. After a fly out, Nevan Jeske and Michael Favia drew walks to load the bases.

Goins, who singled in the sixth, fouled off a couple of pitches and worked the count to 3-2 before earning the walk-off walk.

“What a crazy game — ugly, wrapped up in excitement,” Kating said.

Eric Stazy earned his first victory, throwing 4 innings in relief. The right-hander allowed 6 hits and 4 runs, only 1 earned. He struck out 5 and walked 1.

Craig Klein (1-1) took the loss. He allowed 2 hits, 2 runs (none earned) and struck out 2, but walked the final three batters of the game. Only 2 of the 6 runs South Elgin scored were earned as Huntley committed 6 errors. The Red Raiders also left 9 runners on base.

“We hurt ourselves by making six errors,” Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said. “We've made four errors all year so we doubled plus two what we've done all year. They executed from our mistakes. We deserved to lose today. It was definitely our worst game of the year.”