Nathan Larson said he knew from the start of the season he was going to be the big-game guy for Huntley this year.

In top-seeded Huntley’s 4-1 win over No. 5 DeKalb on Saturday in the championship game of the Class 4A DeKalb Regional, he proved why.

The junior lefty walked the first batter he faced, retired the next 15 batters then pitched around four hits in the last two innings to hold on for the victory. He finished with 12 strikeouts.

“From the start of the season, my coach told me that’s what he saw in me,” Larson said. “He knew I had the potential to pitch every fifth day and in a regional, a sectional or whatnot. I just put all the confidence in my defense. I think it’s huge to show people what I can do.”

The Red Raiders (30-7) took advantage of a couple of errors by DeKalb (19-10-1) early to build a 3-0 lead off starter Zach Dyer. Brady Klepfer singled with two outs, stole second, then scored when junior left fielder Caden Smith got twisted around by a hard-hit line drive by Gavin Rettberg.

In the second, Dyer plunked Diego Herrera with one out. Joey Lengle hit a ground ball to Ryan Duffy at second, but he threw it into left field. John Artinghelli singled Herrera and Lengle home to push the lead to 3-0, with two of the runs unearned.

DeKalb coach Josh Latimer said he felt the two errors were the difference in the game.

“It should have been inning-ending,” Latimer said of the second error. “Like I told the guys, it’s one of those things I haven’t seen. We’ve botched a couple ground balls throughout the year, but I haven’t seen one thrown away ... into left field like that on a double play all year. It’s just very unfortunate that it had to happen today.”

The Red Raiders loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth with a single by Rettberg, a single by Leo Bionchin and a walk to Drew Borkowski. Byer again plunked Herrera, this time driving in a run for a 4-0 Huntley lead.

That ended Dyer’s day. He went 4⅔ innings, allowing four runs, one earned and five hits. He walked two, hit two batters and struck out seven.

For the game, Huntley was 5 for 12 with two outs, scoring twice. They walked twice and were hit by a pitch once.

“In the first inning, when Brady got on with a two-out single, we wanted to be aggressive,” Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said. “Gavin put a nice swing on it after the stolen base. ... It’s something we preach. We want to extend innings. It’s a backbreaker for other teams. Our guys did a nice job.”

The Red Raiders didn’t have to throw Larson in a 10-0 win against Jefferson on Wednesday in what Jakubowski called a perk of earning a No. 1 seed and why the regular season is important.

Jakubowski said Evan Johnson’s double off the fence in the seventh that led to him scoring on a single by Luke Duffy was the only hard-hit ball of Larson in the game.

“Larson was dominant off the mound,” Jakubowski said. “He threw three pitches for strikes and was dominant all game. There’s a reason why he’s our No. 1 and he did extremely well today.”

Huntley advances to the McHenry Sectional, which saw its fair share of upsets. The Red Raiders will face No. 3 seed St. Charles North, while the No. 3 seed from the other sub-section, Hononegah, will face No. 5 Barrington. Both games are Wednesday and the championship is Saturday.

“This leads us into the sectional completely pumped up, ready to go,” Larson said. “We can beat anybody who comes our way.”

The Barbs’ season ends in a regional final at the hands of the Red Raiders for a third straight season.

Even with the loss, Latimer said he was beyond impressed with how his team played.

“I told the kids just now, there’s one thing nobody ever looks at, and I said that’s guts...” Latimer said. “We have it. The guts that they showed out there all year, to finish up 18-11-1 is impressive and take the No. 7 team in the state in that game in that situation, and have a couple errors hurt us, I mean, these guys were incredible all year. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”