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Dundee-Crown keeps Huntley in slump
Updated: May 14, 2011 9:02PM
Dundee-Crown played anything but a flawless game Saturday against Huntley, as an unearned run allowed in the third and four straight seventh-inning hits surrendered by reliever Jordan Kalous indicate.
However, when Kalous and the Chargers really needed the big plays in the field or on the mound, they found them and extended Huntley’s losing streak with an 8-6 Fox Valley Valley triumph.
“It’s a huge win for us,” said Chargers second baseman Corey Volberding. “All of us, one through nine, have confidence in each other as players and we knew what we had to do and today came out and did it.”
Volberding hit his first home run of the year and Scott Nowicke led off the game with a home run, while Tyler Gross (3-3) went six innings for the victory.
“We swung the bats well today,” D-C coach Jon Sawywer said. “I liked our approach offensively.
“And I thought Tyler pitched well for the conditions after he’d had a couple rough outings.”
Gross had complete control and a 3-0 lead until a dropped fly in the outfield allowed an unearned run to score in the third. Gross struck out three, walked one, and allowed eight hits over six innings. He had an 8-5 lead when he left in part because of Nowicke’s homer, and then Volberding’s two-run, two-out shot in the second that gave D-C a 3-0 lead.
“I was just trying to protect with two strikes on me and had to put the ball in play,” Volberding said. “Luckily I got a pitch I liked and the wind helped me a little bit.”
After the unearned run helped Huntley get within 3-1, the Chargers blew it open with a three-run fourth, aided by a bad-hop RBI single by Jake Romano. The entire rally started with two outs. Volberding singled, Jim Griffin walked and Nowicke hit an RBI single. Then Steve Schwartz belted an RBI double down the left-field line off losing pitcher Justin Gundlach (6-2). Romano’s bad-hop infield hit scored Nowicke, but Huntley got out of the inning when Schwartz was picked off third.
Kirk Hanselmann’s RBI single and Chris Lamprecht’s fielder’s choice RBI provided Gross with an 8-2 lead after 4 1/2 innings, before Huntley started shaving the deficit.
The Red Raiders got the tying and go-ahead runners on base in the seventh when they had four straight hits off Kalous. But he buckled down and struck out pinch-hitter Mark Merevick looking, then retired Jake Perkins for his second save of the season when Volberding did a good job handling a bad-hop grounder. The first out occurred when Colin Lyman got caught in a rundown after doubling.
“We’re not playing very good baseball right now,” said Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski, whose team had three errors. “We’re not playing well defensively.
“The competition is tough and some mistakes are going to be magnified more and obviously this week there have been some.”
Volberding and Romano made fielding plays to help keep the Chargers out of trouble. Volberding dove and knocked down Nick Corpolongo’s grounder with one out in the two-run Huntley fourth to get an out at first that helped prevent a big inning. Romano had a spectacular diving catch to end the fourth.
“We can make the really good plays defensively,” Sawyer said. “It’s usually the easy ones that cause problems. We’re improving on it. We’ll get there.”
Nowicke had three hits and two RBI and Volberding, Hanselmann and Dylan Kissack had two hits each for D-C. Colin Lyman had three hits and an RBI, and Bryce Only two hits and an RBI for Huntley (19-7, 14-5), which lost its fifth in a row later Saturday.
Cary-Grove handed Huntley an 11-5 defeat. Bryan Doherty (4-1) took the loss, allowing two earned runs on three hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
Tyler Davila went 2-for-2 with an RBI and Carlos Alvarez added two hits for Huntley against Cary-Grove.
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