McHenry’s destiny ends HHS at 31-5 in sectional final
HUNTLEY – A large group of 15 Huntley seniors, many with baseball futures in college this fall, gathered with the coaches in short left field on a rainy Saturday at Jacobs High School. The 31-5 season had just concluded with an intense, 4-3 loss to McHenry at the sectional final June 4.
“The message was that the group had to overcome a lot of adversity and found a way to overcome to it,” HHS coach Andy Jakubowski said.
The group had led the 2022 HHS squad to the Fox Valley Conference title and a regional championship in DeKalb and a 10-1 sectional semifinal victory over Jacobs.
The Red Raiders tried to rally was from a 4-0 deficit against the rival Warriors included a Brandon Hanley walk and a Ryan Quinlan single ahead of the three-run home run by AJ Putty.
One more chance came in the sixth. Joe Garlin singled, was forced at second, but pinch runner Nick Martino stole second base and moved up on a ground ball out, but this time McHenry hurler Lleyton Grubich retired Putty.
“We definitely fought back,” Jakubowski said. “Putty’s homer gave us the momentum back, but Grubich was dominant, and we had a lot of late swings. It was two hot teams and they had gotten hot at the right time.”
Grubich held the Red Raiders to four hits, as he struck out 10 and walked one. He would also score what was the game-winning run on an error in the third inning.
McHenry built that four-run lead as it added two runs in the second off starter Andrew Ressler. Huntley relief pitcher Mike Vitellaro worked the final three frames.
McHenry, 28-8, who had lost to the Red Raiders twice in league play, moved on to the Super-Sectional clash at Geneva.
Semifinal win
Huntley used the home run ball and solid defense and pitching to advance past Jacobs and on to the IHSA baseball playoff sectional round with a 10-1 win over the Golden Eagles on June 2.
The final Red Raiders win of the season received an exclamation point when senior first baseman Chase Jetel’s fly ball sailed over the left-center field fence at JHS for an 8-1 lead. Just an inning earlier, Jacobs had the tying run at the plate.
Jetel’s shot capped off a three-homer day for the Red Raiders, as Brayden Bakes and Brandon Hanley also got fly balls to the jet stream.
There were some other key turning point moments for the defense behind winning pitcher Adam Guazzo, who won his 10th game without a loss.
Hanley, in the Jacobs fifth, could sense a Golden Eagles run game was underway as a pinch runner was used. Hanley threw him out on a steal attempt with a peg to shortstop Lucas Goldstein. He also threw out a runner on a pick-off play.
Then Malachi Paplanus, in relief of starter Guazzo, got a double play with two on base.
“They had three players reach base in a row, but we left Paplanus in there because he is a good ground-ball pitcher,” Jakubowski said. “We believe in pitching and running some picks on defense and we feel we can scratch out a few runs. We’re a .690 fielding percentage team, pretty good for high school.”
Guazzo threw a four-hit, five-strikeout effort at the Golden Eagles.
