Harlem ends Huntley's softball season
DeKALB - The softball teams from Huntley and Machesney Park Harlem played a little game of cat and mouse Wednesday in the semifinals of the Class 4A DeKalb sectional.
Call Harlem the cat and Huntley the mouse on this day.
In about as even a game as any fan enjoying the sun-splashed day could ask for, Harlem was able to take advantage of Huntley's mistakes in one inning then string together some hits in another to come away with a 5-4 win.
The Huskies (22-10) will take on Barrington at 11 a.m. Saturday for the sectional championship and the right to advance to Monday's 7 p.m. Barrington supersectional at the Fields of Dreams against either New Trier or Stevenson, who play for the Glenbrook South sectional title Saturday.
"It's been the story of our playoffs - we've been seeing great pitchers and we saw another one today," said Huntley coach Mark Petryniec, whose team tied a school record for wins this season as well as had the least amount of losses of any team in program history.
"We just came up a little short in the end."
The pitcher Petryniec referred to is Harlem senior Olivia Fluehr, who will play for NJCAA Division III national champion Rock Valley College next year.
While Fluehr did allow the Red Raiders (24-9) 10 hits, she got out of three jams that could have produced Huntley's first trip to a sectional final.
Harlem grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on Megen Johnson's RBI single but Huntley, in a sectional for the first time since 2009, came right back in the bottom of the inning when freshman Tiffany Giese led off with a single, stole second and went to third on junior Jessica Shields' single. Junior Hayley O'Mara singled with one out to score Giese and Shields came home on Haley Spannraft's groundout to give the Raiders a 2-1 lead.
Harlem tied it in the third when back-to-back infield errors allowed Emily Guske to reach base and then take second. She scored the tying run on an RBI single from Johnson, who was 3-for-3. It could have been worse for Huntley as the Huskies made a baserunning mistake resulting in an out and Raiders' senior catcher Jessica Knutsen picked a runner off second for the third out of the inning.
Huntley jumped ahead again, 3-2, in the fourth when senior catcher Jessica Knutsen walked with two outs and courtesy runner Caitlin Brown scored on Giese's double. Giese then stole third but Fuehr got a strikeout to end the inning.
The Huskies then had their inning. In the top of the fifth, they hit Giese and the Raiders for 3 runs on 5 hits, with Fluehr, Dakota Watson and Kristin Fudge all driving in runs to give Harlem a 5-3 lead.
"They're a big hitting team," said Petryniec of the Huskies. "They executed and put the ball in play. They're a good team. It was two good teams battling it out today."
Huntley closed the gap to 5-4 with a run in the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Shannon Walsh beat out an infield hit and stole second before Knutsen laced a single down the right-field line. Walsh then scored on Giese's sacrifice fly but Brown was left stranded at second as the tying run when Fluehr got a pop up to end the inning.
Huntley got a runner on in the bottom of the seventh but didn't threaten to score.
Giese took the loss, but went 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored and her maturation in the circle this season bodes well for Huntley's future.
"I thought Tiff did great and Jessica Knutsen had some nice at-bats today," Petryniec said. "Our girls put the ball in play and that's all you can ask for."
The Red Raiders will graduate six seniors including first baseman Megan Larson, who will play at Loras College next year.
"We came a lot farther than in previous years," Larson said. "We all worked very well as a team and we had solid offense and defense most of the time."
"I'm so happy we made history," added Knutsen. "We didn't get to see that the last few years."