Baseball: Hampshire stuns Barrington in 11 innings

Never did a blister hurt so good.

It started developing in the eighth inning, the first of several extra innings between Hampshire and Barrington on Wednesday night.

But Hampshire pitcher Matthew Jachec didn't care.

He was rolling, and a pesky, nagging blister on the tip of his middle finger of his throwing hand, no matter how much it stung and irritated him, wasn't going to throw him off. Nothing was.

Jachec was having the game of his life.

"I was a little worried they'd want me to come out. Every pitch releases off that finger. It was bad, but I just kept battling because there was no way I would come out," Jachec said. "This is by far the most innings I've ever pitched. And by far the best I've ever pitched."

It took 11 innings and some failed attempts at wrapping up the blister, but Jachec led Hampshire to a dramatic 3-0 victory over Barrington in the Class 4A McHenry sectional at Peterson Park.

The Whip-Purs, who improved to 20-14 and scored all 3 of their runs in the top of 11th when Gavin Kriegel and Caden Pyszka hit back-to-back doubles, advance to Saturday's sectional championship game against Cary-Grove.

Jachec gave up only 3 hits over 10 innings and had 5 strikeouts before being subbed out because he finally hit the 115 maximum pitch count. Then reliever Dylan Petrey came in to close out the game with three straight strikeouts in the bottom of the 11th inning.

"That kid pitched extraordinarily well," Barrington coach Pat Wire said of Jachec. "He had great command. He never gave us anything for free. We had 3 hits. We had chances, we just didn't capitalize.

"I'd be lying if I said we weren't frustrated, because I feel like we've faced pitchers who have stuff like that, with that kind of velocity or that kind of command. But he was definitely on, like he was pitching his very best performance."

Barrington's pitchers were also tough to crack.

Starter RJ Nowicki went nearly eight full innings without giving up a run. He was replaced with two outs in the eighth by Rayth Petersen and had given up just 4 hits.

Petersen kept Hampshire off the scoreboard for another two innings until the big doubles by Kriegel and Pyszka.

"I was just waiting for a pitch like that all game," said Kriegel, who drove in Hampshire's first two runs with his double, which sailed into left field. "There was just a lot of movement on everything (Nowicki and Petersen) threw and they were hitting their spots. They were tough. But they finally gave me the pitch I was looking for."

Barrington, which closed its season with a 30-8 record, had a tough time finding that perfect pitch.

"We knew (Jachec) was a talented pitcher going in and we prepared the best we could," Barrington center fielder Clark Elliot said. "But he was on his game. He kept us off-balance with his off-speed pitches and he just controlled us the whole entire game."

As if there wasn't enough celebration outside the Hampshire dugout after the game, the players then broke into singing "Happy Birthday" for head coach Frank Simoncelli, who turned 33 on Wednesday.

"What a great birthday present," Simoncelli said. "I mean, Holy Cow. I think this is the best game I've ever been a part of.

"Both teams grinded it out and it was so fun."