Baseball: Huntley blanks Dundee-Crown

Monday was not a day to swing for the fences.

With chilly temperatures and the wind howling in from left field, small ball was the order of the day, and Huntley played it to perfection. The Red Raiders stole bases, executed a hit-and-run and hit behind runners while opening the Fox Valley Conference season with a 3-0 win against Dundee-Crown in Huntley.

Fittingly, the catalyst was leadoff hitter Michael Talesky. He led off the first and third innings with hits and wound up scoring both times.

Talesky knew better than to try to sky the ball into the teeth of the wind.

"(I was) just working it in and out on every ball, trying to barrel it, not really trying to get lift on it, just hit it straight through the middle," he said. "With the wind like this, I'm not really going to get anything full cycle, so just hit it soft and stay up the middle. If it's middle out push it right side."

Huntley's No. 2 hitter, Hunter Rumachik, also had 2 hits. Eli Paplanus and Christian Kasal combined on a 4-hit shutout.

Talesky led off with a double to the gap in right center. Rumachik drove him in with a sharp single to right.

That was about as much slugging as the Red Raiders would need. Rumachik then stole second, went to third on a grounder by A.J. Henkle and scored on another grounder by Zach Model, giving Paplanus all the support he needed.

"I thought our situational hitting early definitely set the tone," said Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski. "A.J. hit behind the runner twice, moving runners over, Model getting them home. We executed a hit-and-run that we were able to score on. I thought we ran the bases pretty well, and it's just one of the better games that we've played all-around all year."

Talesky and Rumichak struck again in the third with back-to-back singles, Talesky scoring when the ball skipped past the right fielder and rolled to the fence.

Paplanus pitched out of trouble for five innings, allowing just 2 hits but walking 4. Kasal pitched out of a jam in the sixth after Ray Gestrich singled and Enrique Aramburo doubled, then threw a 1-2-3 seventh to earn the save.

Chargers starter Riley Fischer was sharp, too, walking one and striking out three. He escaped a jam in the fourth. Jason Peters and Kyle Maurer led off with hits, but Fischer retired 3 straight to end the threat. In fact, Fischer retired his last 6 hitters before giving way to Dylan Palmatier, who pitched a perfect seventh.

"We feel pretty good right now," said D-C coach Matt Mueller. "We're playing really good baseball against a lot of good teams."

Huntley improved to 6-2 overall while the Chargers fell to 2-5.