Softball: Huntley wins, Barrington up next
Huntley's softball team took care of the last step to another shot at a sectional championship Thursday with its 12-2 win in five innings over McHenry in the semifinals of the Class 4A Huntley sectional.
Now comes the hurdle the Red Raiders have failed to get over the last two years - the Barrington Fillies.
Senior Tiffany Giese scattered 5 hits in running her season record to 24-2 and the Red Raiders (32-5) overcame an early 2-1 deficit to advance to Saturday's 11 a.m. sectional title game against Barrington (32-3), the team that has eliminated the Raiders in sectional play the last two seasons.
Freshman Marley Reicher had 3 hits for Huntley in Thursday's win and the Raiders took advantage of 7 walks, 2 hit batters and 4 McHenry errors.
But there was a tense moment early in the game when the Warriors (14-17) took the lead.
After scoring first on Grace Kutz' fielders choice RBI that brought home Giese, who opened the bottom of the first with a walk, went to second on a throwing error and third on Autumn Kasal's infield single, the Raiders' defense bent a little in the top of the second allowing McHenry to score twice.
With one out Lauren Sena singled and after a strikeout Huntley made an error on Taylor Zoephel's fly ball, allowing Sena to take third. Then, on Tiffany Kirk's RBI single to right field, the Raiders made another error that allowed Zoephel to score and put the Warriors ahead 2-1.
"It was frustrating how it happened but we got through it," said Giese, who is signed to play at Wisconsin-Green Bay next year. "It was early in the game and we just played through it."
It didn't take the Raiders long to take back the lead for good.
In the bottom of the second McHenry starter Ashley Dehmlow walked 4 and hit a batter to help the Raiders' cause. Reicher had an RBI single in the inning, Kasal drew a bases-loaded walk and Kutz followed that being hit by a pitch. Those 3 runs put Huntley on top 4-2 and the Raiders never looked back.
"Our approach today was to be patient and not chase stuff out of the zone," said Huntley coach Mark Petryniec. "Up and down the order we did a good job with that."
The rest was left to Giese, the Raiders' defense and much more offense. On the day Giese, who added 2 hits and was on base all four plate appearances, struck out 3, didn't walk anyone and let her defense do the rest, including a diving catch in left field by senior Cailyn Pienschke and flawless infield play as Giese induced ground ball after ground ball. Seven of McHenry's 15 outs were grounders.
"Tiff's going to keep us in the game. She's been doing it for four years," Petryniec said. "And we didn't have any compound mistakes today."
"My defense killed it today," Giese said. "We were really strong on defense and the offense lit it up."
Huntley made it a 5-2 game in the third on Giese's RBI single that scored freshman Paige Berkmeyer who led off the inning with a single.
The Red Raiders then made it 8-2 in the fourth as junior Sofia Tenuta (2 hits, 3 RBI), sophomore Teagan O'Rilley and Berkmeyer all drove in runs.
Huntley ended the game on the slaughter rule in the fifth inning as Tenuta had a 2-run single to make it 10-2 and O'Rilley ended it with a 2-run single, the last of the Raiders' 12 hits for the game.
Next up for Huntley, which is in its fourth straight sectional overall but without a sectional title in program history, is its postseason nemesis, a Barrington team that took third in Class 4A last season and that beat Huntley in a 1-run game earlier this season.
"We're excited," Giese said. "We'll just come out and play our game and focus on what we know. It's always been (Barrington) kicking us out and it's always been bitter. We're just gonna come out and play our best."
Which is what Petryniec expects from his team.
"Even though we haven't had much success against (the Fillies) it's another game," he said. "Hopefully we'll play our best and come out on top this time."