Faced with an opportunity to give Huntley its first lead of the night, senior shortstop Kyle Ziebell took a breath and prayed to himself.
With two outs and courtesy runner Leo Bianchin standing on second base in the bottom of the fourth inning of a tie game, Ziebell pounded an 0-1 pitch over the left-field fence for a two-run homer.
His only hit of the evening, Ziebell’s go-ahead blast gave Huntley its largest lead. The Red Raiders didn’t relinquish it, as Gavin Rettberg launched a solo home run in the sixth to help Huntley seal an 8-6 victory over the Broncos in a game called in the sixth inning due to darkness.
The Red Raiders (7-0) remained unbeaten with the come-from-behind win.
Huntley capitalized on a fielding error at first base to rally from a four-run deficit and tie Monday’s nonconference matchup 5-5 against Barrington in the fourth, setting the stage for Ziebell’s homer.
“I felt like I was pressing early and I just went up there, took a quick prayer and said, ‘God, I know you got me,’” Ziebell said. “I just wanted to go up there and be myself. I took a deep breath and then I swung.”
With Huntley trailing 5-1 after three-and-a-half innings, Brady Klepfer sparked the rally with a leadoff single. Drew Borkowski and Joey Lengle reached base soon after, setting up a one-out RBI single by Rettberg, who went 2 for 3 with three RBIs. Ian Kelly then bounced a grounder to third, driving Borkowski home to bring the score to 5-3.
“This whole season, I’ve been thinking about staying smooth and relaxed in the box,” Rettberg said. “Today, I really worked on staying all the way back and waiting for the right pitch to swing at.”
For a brief moment, it appeared that Huntley’s rally would end. No. 9 batter Travis Dudycha hit an 0-2 pitch on the ground toward the left side of the infield, but a fielding error at first base allowed Lengle and Rettberg to score, giving the Red Raiders new life.
Ziebell, hitting atop the Huntley order, capped off the six-run surge with his two-run shot.
“I think we saw their pitches well and everybody brings feedback after their ABs,” Ziebell said. “Everybody listens and we all come together. I’ve never been on a team that’s so close. When someone’s down or someone doesn’t get a hit, the next guy goes up there and gets a hit.”
Barrington (4-3) pounced on Huntley early, scoring five runs over the first two innings. The Broncos went up 3-0 in the first, where Bowie Heintz bounced an RBI single over the pitcher Klepfer’s head to score lead-off man Max Wrzezcz. Joseph Mueller, in a 1-2 count, started his day with a well-struck two-run homer to left field two batters later.
“I was in an approach where I wanted to bring in the guy on second,” Mueller said. “I was trying to just protect in a two-strike count, but I looked at my coach and he gave me the contact sign. All I needed to do was put the ball in play and see what happens. I wanted to put the ball out there and put it in a place where the defense couldn’t field it.”
The Broncos took advantage of costly errors in the second, as back-to-back miscues by the Huntley infield allowed Barrington to take a four-run lead. With two outs, Heintz bashed an RBI double over the head of a retreating Borkowski in deep center field. Heintz went 2 for 3 with one run scored and two RBIs in the game.
“I had a lot of guys on third today, so I was really just trying to hit ground balls or deep fly balls to help bring in the runners,” Heintz said. “Their pitcher started to get really wild, which had him going into bad counts, which gave us advantages. I was in a lot of 2-1 or 3-1 situations where I had a good opportunity to hit a fastball hard.”
Rettberg put the Red Raiders on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third, lofting a sacrifice fly to right field. After Huntley’s six-run half, Barrington made the score 7-6 on Mueller’s RBI groundout in the top of the fifth, but Rettberg’s homer gave the Red Raiders a lift.