Surprise in FVC Valley as Dundee-Crown upsets Huntley
The Dundee-Crown baseball coaching staff resorted to superstition in an attempt to snap the Chargers' 12-game losing streak.
Head coach Jon Sawyer and assistant Hank Faulkner shaved their beards on Monday. The coaches wore red uniform tops instead of blue on Tuesday. They donned different caps. Faulkner even switched from his customary spot as first base coach and coached third for a few innings in Monday's 3-2 loss to Jacobs. Assistant Gary Gilly coached first.
"Coach Gilly was going to coach third next," Sawyer said. But by the end of Tuesday's game against visiting Huntley, there was no need for further intangible notions.
Backed by quality pitching performances from senior starter Chris Sailor and reliever Mike Lodi, the last-place Chargers played toe to toe with the first-place Red Raiders and eventually scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning to win 4-3 in a Valley Division game in the Fox Valley Conference.
"We were in a big slump and this was a huge breakthrough," said D-C center fielder Jake Romano, who made a remarkable leaping catch into the wall in left-center field to rob Chris Klein of extra bases in the fifth inning. "After coming up short in 2 close games against Jacobs, we were getting (ticked) and we tried to take it out on these guys."
The costly defeat knocked Huntley out of a three-way tie for first place in the Valley with 3 games to play. Cary-Grove (20-11, 15-6) grabbed the outright division lead by a game after beating Crystal Lake South 5-4 on a walk-off single. Huntley (21-9, 14-7) fell into a second-place tie with McHenry (19-10, 14-7), which lost to Jacobs 10-1.
"We're going to regroup (today) at practice, we're going to continue to work on the defensive end and we're going to come to play on Thursday," Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said.
Dundee-Crown (11-19-1, 9-13) loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the eighth against Klein (4-4), who relieved Matt Morin after the senior tossed 7 innings and allowed 3 earned runs on 6 hits. Nick Spagnola reached on an error at third base, Kirk Hanselmann's bunt trickled between Klein's legs for a hit and Steve Schwartz was hit by a pitch to fill the bases for freshman Dylan Kissack.
Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski countered by placing center fielder Nick Kostalek behind the pitcher as a fifth infielder. But with 2 strikes against him, Kissack grounded a high-hopper over the mound that skipped under Kostalek's glove to score Spagnola with the streak-busting run.
"I just took the 2-strike approach we've been practicing all year," Kissack said. "(Klein) threw me a fastball inside, so I just tried to put the bat on it and got it up the middle. We've had some close losses, so this one feels pretty good."
D-C led 1-0 after Hanselmann's RBI groundout in the first inning. Huntley tied it in the fourth inning on a double by Bryce Only, but the Chargers scored twice in the bottom of the fourth on a double by Schwartz and a sacrifice fly by Chris Sailor to take a 3-1 lead.
Huntley freshman Colin Lyman knotted the game at 3-3 in the fifth inning with a 2-run home run to left field.
Sailor held Huntley to 3 runs (2 earned) on 5 hits in 62/3 innings, and Lodi (5-4) tossed 11/3 innings of scoreless relief to earn the win.
"I'm really happy for the kids," Sawyer said. "A lot of kids could have gotten down in this stretch that we've had. They always came with a positive attitude, ready to go. They didn't point fingers at each other, none of that, so they deserve all the credit in the world."