4A McHenry Sectional: Huntley rallies twice, scores four in the 8th to defeat McHenry

McHENRY, Ill. – A pitcher’s duel for seven innings, the McHenry-Huntley Sectional semifinals meeting came down to some extra-inning heroics. Two separate Red Raider rallies pushed Huntley to the enormous 6-5 victory over their Fox Valley rivals on Thursday night.

Despite playing on their own home field, McHenry, the lower-ranked seed, operated as the visiting team. Huntley’s starter and senior ace, Kyle Morgan, looked in command in the first inning, featuring a trademark curveball and changeup. He was twirling in offspeed for strikes and with confidence which appeared to set the tone early. He opposed McHenry’s No. 1, sophomore Joe Kaminski, who didn’t escape his first inning unscathed. A two-out bloop base hit into shallow center off Kamrin Hoffmann’s bat was just inconvenient enough for McHenry defensively that Hoffmann scuttled to second for a double. Matt Rodriguez singled sharply into right field in the ensuing at-bat to hand Huntley the early 1-0 lead.

After the first, Kaminski settled in. He didn’t have many clean innings, per se, but any baserunners he did allow generally came with two away and he was effective in those situations – mostly.

Morgan on the other hand looked calm and comfortable. He was dangling his offspeed and mixing in his fastball masterfully and it had McHenry off balance through a swift seven up and seven down. That’s when Garrett Gillund stepped up to the plate. The big righty connected for a sound solo homer over the left field fence in a 1-1 count to tie the game up – it was the first well-struck ball McHenry had off Morgan in the game.

After a 1-2-3 inning from Kaminski, Morgan pitched over Jake Evans’ smash-hit double into the right field corner to maintain the tie. But in the fifth inning, the lanky lefty wasn’t so lucky. Nolan Shannon’s single to right field to open the inning represented the game’s first lead-off baserunner, and McHenry took advantage of the rare opportunity. A sacrifice bunt moved him over to second and, after Morgan struck out Gillund for the second out of the inning, two wild pitches moved Shannon to third and then to home to grant the Warriors a late 2-1 lead.

By this point, Kaminski was dealing. He had clearly gathered much more confidence in his hard fastball and he somewhat coolly pitched over over the few threats Huntley scrounged together between the second and sixth innings. It was the seventh that the trouble caught up with him. To lead off the bottom of the inning, still chasing a run to tie, Jason Peters singled softly into the the third base hole and he reached first safely for the infield base hit. A sacrifice bunt from Joey Petryniec moved him to second for Huntley’s lead-off hitter Michael Talesky, with Kaminski still firing on the mound. The righty retired Talesky via the strikeout, leaving Huntley’s season in the capable hands of Jordan Goldstein. He was aggressive and it paid off, rocketing a single cleanly into right field, enough to bring in Peters from second to tie the game, 2-2.

An out away from a would-be glorious complete game in the Sectional semifinals, Kaminski mowed down Hoffmann for his sixth strike out of the game to send the contest to extras, where he was tasked with leading the inning off at the plate.

And he lined a single into left to lead things off. Evans’ single to right field sent Kaminski to third with one out. McHenry had pushed Morgan to his limit with an out in the sixth and Nick Laxner relieved him. Laxner remained on the mound in the eighth and looked like he was about to get out of the jam with runners on first and third when he struck out Jared Wojcik, but Shannon doubled home both runners on his liner to left center field. Chase Grasso jumped on the first pitch in the very next at-bat to single home Shannon, giving the Warriors a three-run lead in the eighth inning, three outs away from a date with Barrington in Saturday’s Sectional championship.

Huntley was resilient, though. In the bottom of the inning, Rodriguez led off with a hard hit grounder that ricocheted off reliever Dylan Honkala, who gathered the ball with enough time but threw it away, sending Rodriguez to second. With two strikes, Hunter Rumachik slugged a double into left center to score Rodriguez and A.J. Henkle singled him home right after that. And just like that, the tying run was on first. Owen Patzin relieved Honkala and was welcomed with a sacrifice bunt that sent Henkle to second. He walked Peters, then Petryniec, and then struck out pinch-hitter Davis Pasco to record the inning’s second out with his team’s 5-4 lead still intact.

In order to earn the win, he needed to retire arguably Huntley’s best bat, Goldstein. He fouled off the first pitch, took two straight balls, a strike, and then two more balls to walk, earning Huntley the tie. In stepped Hoffmann, who fouled off the first pitch, clearly looking to end it. Eventually, he smoked a fastball into the left center gap that scored Peters, capping an unlikely comeback win for Huntley.

The loss is a devastating one for a McHenry team that’s had a great season under head coach Brian Rockweiler. The win for Huntley keeps its strong season alive and well. They’ll prepare themselves for Barrington on Saturday at 11 a.m., back at McHenry’s Petersen Park.

STATISTICAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Joe Kaminski, RHP, McHenry, 2019: 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 6 K

• Kyle Morgan, LHP, Huntley, 2018: 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 7 K

• Nolan Shannon, 3B, McHenry, 2020: 3-for-4, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI

• Jordan Goldstein, 3B, Huntley, 2018: 1-for-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI

• Kamrin Hoffmann, C, Huntley, 2018: 2-for-5, 2B, GW RBI

• Garrett Gillund, 1B, McHenry, 2018: 1-for-2, HR, 2 BB, R, RBI  

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