Baseball: Janke leads Huntley in 5-2 FVC win over McHenry
Huntley left fielder Haiden Janke had an inkling early on that it was going to be a productive day at the plate.
“When we were warming up this morning I felt like my swing was there and I could have a good day,” Janke said. “I didn’t get too high on myself and felt smooth and calm and just went out and had fun.”
Janke was 3 for 4 with two RBIs to lead the Red Raiders past McHenry 5-2 in their Fox Valley Conference baseball opener Friday on McHenry’s new field. He would have been 4 for 4 had Warriors right fielder not taken away extra bases with a catch on the dead run near the right-field line in the second inning.
Huntley (7-0, 1-0 FVC) got all of its 11 hits from the fourth inning on as McHenry starter Brandon Shannon was tough, allowing one earned run and striking out six.
“I told the guys we struck out way too much,” Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said. “We have to do a better job, but I attribute that to Shannon being a dominant arm and we’re all rusty.
“We knew it was going to be a low-scoring game. Our goal was to get Shannon out and get into their bullpen and keep it close, and hopefully be able to blow it open. Our guys kind of stuck with that and we were able to capitalize.”
The Raiders scored two in the sixth and added two more in the seventh after Shannon, who threw 88 pitches, had departed.
Huntley starter Malachi Paplanus held the Warriors (5-2, 0-1) to two runs through four innings and struck out five. He escaped trouble in the fourth when Kadin and Kamrin Borck walked and Jeffry Schwab, hitting ninth, ripped an RBI single.
“We just didn’t hit. We had that one inning where we got into scoring position with Jack (Stecker) and Ryan (Nagel) up, our 1 and 2 hitters,” Warriors coach Brian Rockweiler said. “If we score two there, it’s probably a little bit different ballgame. We only had four hits, it’s kind of tough to win a ton of games with four hits.
“We just didn’t execute at the crucial times and they did.”
Paplanus got Stecker and Nagel on strikeouts, then Mason Leske threw three scoreless innings to pick up the victory.
Janke singled to start the sixth, then pinch hitter Drew Borkowski ripped a single down the third-base line and AJ Putty shot a single to right field to drive in a run and T.J. Jakubowski grounded out to second to bring in Borkowski.
“I had one thing going through my head, put the ball hard in play,” Borkowski said. “Make them make a good play.”
With runners on first and second and none out in the seventh, Janke swung and missed on a hit-and-run call and courtesy runner Jason Wolter was thrown out at third. But Janke came through on the next pitch with an RBI single to right, stole second and later scored on a wild pitch.
“He was outstanding. He was nice, short and quick to the baseball,” Andy Jakubowski said. “He used the whole field. I was like, ‘Dude, you made me look bad swinging through the hit and run right there,’ but he came up big with the two-strike hit to drive in a run and give us some insurance.”
Janke felt Shannon, who hits the high 80 mph with his fastballs, was the hardest thrower the Raiders had seen.
“It was a little rough,” Janke said. “I haven’t seen high velocity this year and he was humming it.”