Huntley Falls In Regional Title Game

As the regular season began to wind up, Huntley’s baseball team began to run into trouble including a stretch of seven days with six straight losses.

During the streak, Huntley lost to Dundee-Crown twice and the Red Raiders got a chance to make the third time the charm Saturday in the Class 4A Huntley Regional championship game.

Bryan Doherty threw a complete game, giving up just five hits, but a Bryce Only error in the third inning was Huntley’s undoing in a 1-0 loss to the Chargers to end their season with a 22-11 record.

Huntley had five different innings where the Red Raiders had two runners on base with two outs but were unable to score. Huntley mounted one final threat in the seventh inning with two outs after Carlos Alvarez walks and Nick Corpolongo singled but Colin Lyman hit into a fielder’s choice to end the game.

Huntley had advanced to the championship game with a 5-4 win over Jacobs on Thursday. The Red Raiders got on the board early as Brody Burkart led off the second inning with a double.

Kameron Sallee then bunted towards first base and when Jacobs pitcher Henry Gigeous tried to throw to first, the ball slipped out of his hand and went into right field, scoring Burkart.

Tyler Mindak would single later in the inning to make it a 2-0 Huntley lead, which would stand until the fifth inning.

In the fifth, Jacobs got to starter Jake Staab, scoring four times to take a 4-2 lead. Tyler Davila and Alvarez walked to start the bottom of the sixth inning and when Corpolongo bunted trying to advance the runners, the throw by Gigeous went into right field, allowing Davila and Alvarez to both score to tie the game at 4.

Colin Lyman followed with his third hit of the day to score Nick Kostalek, who ran for Corpolongo, with the winning run. Justin Gundlach got the win in his first relief appearance of the season, pitching 2 2/3 scoreless innings.