Gavin Rettberg has been pulling the ball for most of the season.

On Friday, Rettberg used the opposite field in a crucial moment as Huntley attempted to rally and take the first game of its home-and-home baseball series against McHenry. With two runners in scoring position, Rettberg smacked the first pitch he saw from lefty Nathan Neidhardt, shooting the ball through the right side of the infield.

The senior’s clutch hit, a two-run single, broke a tied score and gave Huntley its first lead of the evening. Amid a postseason atmosphere with fans crammed into both bleachers, the Red Raiders stunned the Warriors 5-3 in a battle of the Fox Valley Conference’s top two teams. The win also kept Huntley’s chances of sharing the FVC title alive.

“I was just trying to put us ahead any way I could,” said Rettberg, who went 3 for 4 with three singles and two RBIs in the game. “I’ve been a big pull hitter the whole year. Recently, I’ve been trying to stay oppo and keep my hands through and that’s exactly what I did.”

Trailing by one entering the bottom of the sixth, Huntley (22-4, 12-3 FVC) called on pinch hitter Matt Keaty to start the rally. With one out, Keaty fired a line-drive single into field. Drew Borkowski then fought for a full-count walk in an eight-pitch at-bat against Neidhardt.

As tension mounted, Huntley’s Aiden Eickelmann delivered one of the game’s biggest hits, floating a shallow single into center field to drive Keaty home from second. It was the second hit of the evening for Eickelmann, who also scored a pair of runs in the comeback victory.

“I was really looking for a fastball,” Eickelmann said. “It’s a pitch to hit and I was late on one earlier in the game. I made sure I was on time. That’s all I really cared for and the feeling was great. I did my job, I stayed up the middle and I put my barrel on the ball.”

Rettberg’s two-run single, which came with two outs after a failed bunt attempt by Brady Klepfer in the previous at-bat, put Huntley in position to close the gap with McHenry (23-4-1, 13-2 FVC) in the conference standings. Three outs away from victory, the Red Raiders called upon right-handed reliever Josh Rudnick to seal the deal.

Rudnick, who entered with a runner on first and nobody out, retired lead-off batter Landon Clements on a flyout to left. He then worked around a one-out walk, getting Kaden Wasniewski to fly out to right field before fielding a ground ball to the mound that clinched the win.

“We talked about how this was most likely going to be a low-scoring game and it would most likely come down to execution,” Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski said. “I think the kids made some good adjustments. Matt came off the bench and gave us a little spark. We got aggressive with Eickelmann and we went with a hit and run.”

McHenry sent Wasniewski out to the mound to start the game. The junior right-hander and LSU recruit struck out seven and yielded just one earned run on three hits over four innings of work. But the Red Raiders worked for five walks, running Wasniewski’s pitch count to 94.

“I thought he pitched well enough to win,” McHenry coach Brian Rockweiler said. “He struggled a little bit to get his breaking ball over and he threw a lot of pitches, but he pitched well enough to win. They came through with some clutch hits at the end and that hurt us.”

Wasniewski helped himself at the plate, reaching base three times and going 2 for 3 with two RBI singles. His first put McHenry ahead 1-0 in the first and his second helped the Warriors go up 2-1 in the third. On a first-pitch swing in the fourth, Neidhardt ripped a solo home run off Huntley starter Sean Dabe to give the Warriors their largest lead.

The two teams will conclude their home-and-home series in McHenry on Monday. The Warriors will clinch at least a share of the FVC title with a win, while Huntley moves into a tie for first place with a win.