Dundee-Crown shuts out Huntley
Dundee-Crown baseball coach Jon Sawyer and assistants Hank Faulkner and Gary Gilly were faced with a complete rebuild when Sawyer took over in 2009 for retiring IHSBCA hall-of-famer Fred Bencriscutto, but the three-year project yielded its intended result Saturday when the Chargers knocked off host Huntley 1-0 to win a Class 4A regional championship.
Sawyer started four sophomore position players in 2009 — shortstop Steve Schwartz, first baseman/catcher Kirk Hanselmann, right fielder Scott Nowicke and third baseman Nick Spagnola — along with freshman center fielder Jake Romano.
Predictably, the young team took its lumps and finished 8-24. They improved a bit last year to 13-23.
All five third-year players contributed to the errorless defensive effort Saturday behind 6-foot-3, left-handed starting pitcher Mike Hazelhurst. The junior threw a complete-game shutout to improve to 7-1 and lower his earned-run average to 1.31.
“It’s rewarding,” said Sawyer, who announced last week he will step down at the end of the season to take a teaching job at Grayslake North. “We said this was one of our goals three years ago. The kids bought in, and that was the key. They bought into the hard work and played all summer. It’s nice to see the hard work pay off.”
The regional title is the seventh for the D-C baseball program and the first since Bencriscutto guided the Chargers to a Class AA state quarterfinal in 2007. The win advances Dundee-Crown (24-13) to a DeKalb sectional semifinal against Fox Valley Conference rival Cary-Grove (26-9) on Thursday at 4 p.m.
It was the third win in as many meetings this season for No. 2 D-C against top-seed Huntley (22-11).
Hazelhurst and his counterpart, junior right-hander Bryan Doherty (5-2), each pitched brilliantly. Hazelhurst limited Huntley to 7 hits, walked 3 and struck out 3. Doherty held the Chargers, a team with a collective .312 batting average, to 5 hits and 2 walks, and he struck out 4 in 7 innings.
“Doherty was outstanding,” said Huntley’s Andy Jakubowski, who last season coached the Red Raiders to a fourth-place finish in the state tournament. “He did a nice job of changing speeds. We had a good scouting report on D-C after what we saw (in Friday’s semifinal) and he executed it to a T.
“I thought it was a well-played game on both ends. I congratulate D-C. They deserve it. They’re a great team, a great program, and that’s great for Coach Sawyer. It was a very good ballgame.”
Dundee-Crown’s run in the second inning was unearned. Spagnola led off with a single and stole second, Hanselmann walked and both runners advanced on Corey Volberding’s sacrifice bunt.
Doherty coaxed a popup for the second out, but third baseman Bryce Only couldn’t glove a two-hopper off the bat of Jimmy Griffin for the third out. The error allowed Spagnola to scamper home for a 1-0 Dundee-Crown lead.
Hazelhurst made the slim margin stand up by stranding runners in scoring position in four innings, including the final two. Huntley’s Colin Lyman and Brody Burkhart each singled in the sixth inning to put runners at first and third with one out, but Hazelhurst wiggled out of the jam. He induced a popout to Schwartz in shallow center field for the second out, then ended the threat with a swinging strikeout on a high fastball.
“Originally, I wanted to see if I could get a groundball and get out of the inning,” said Hazelhurst. “Luckily, he popped out. Then I was just trying to see what I could do to get a groundball.
“I’m not an overpowering pitcher by any means. I just try to let them hit the ball somewhere where our defense can make the play.”
With two outs in the seventh, Hazelhurst issued a two-out walk to Carlos Alvarez, and he allowed a single by Nick Corpolongo. However, he got Lyman to ground out to Volberding at second base to end the game.
“He was definitely on his A game today,” D-C catcher Dylan Kissack said of Hazelhurst. “He hit most of his spots consistently.”