High school baseball: Cary-Grove beats Crystal Lake Central in extra innings

CRYSTAL LAKE – Cary-Grove senior Jacob Duncan experienced more than his share of tense moments in three innings, and came through every time.

Duncan stranded two Crystal Lake Central runners in the sixth inning. He left two more Tigers standing in the seventh.

Then, Duncan picked up his bat and went to work, delivering a two-run single in the eighth inning that broke things open. The Trojans scored six unearned runs in their last at-bat for an 8-2 victory over the Tigers in their Fox Valley Conference game Wednesday at Fred Tipps Field.

C-G (15-4, 9-2) won its sixth consecutive game to remain one-half game behind Huntley in the FVC standings.

“Those are the kind of teammates you need,” Trojans coach Ryan Passaglia said. “They aren’t in the starting lineup, but they’re ready to go. He did a fantastic job.”

Duncan entered with one out in the sixth inning after Ryan Weaver left with a 2-1 lead. Duncan gave up a tying single to Trey Desimone, but left runners at first and third. In the seventh, he worked around a C-G error and stranded runners at first and second.

“I just came in and really wanted to let my defense work for me,” Duncan said. “I wasn’t really hitting my spots necessarily, they put the bat on the ball, but my defense was good behind me.”

The biggest out came in the seventh with the winning run at second as Duncan battled Central’s Will Welder to a full count. Welder fouled off two pitches before Duncan got him on a pop-out to first base and send the game to the game to the eighth.

“It was definitely tough,” Duncan said. “He was throwing the bat on the ball wherever I threw it. I was trying to get the ball in the zone.”

The Tigers committed two errors to start the eighth and C-G capitalized from there. Duncan ripped a two-run single up the middle, Dymitri Kanellakis drove in a run with a fielder’s choice, then Weaver and Quinn Priester had RBI singles.

“Our approaches at the beginning weren’t as good as they could be,” said Trojans catcher Drew Stengren, who drew an eighth-inning walk. “That last inning we got great pitches to hit and hit them well. Weave’s really been on the last few starts and we haven’t given him a lot of run support. I’m glad to have him pitch that well. Dunc closed the door and got us a big hit.”

Central (6-12, 1-9) followed a pattern all too familiar in getting close and not being able to finish the job. Starter Reece Mensching allowed five hits, struck out four and did not walk a batter in 6 2/3 innings.

“Reece pitched outstanding,” Tigers coach Andy Deain said. “He’s been good every time out on the mound. We gave ourselves opportunities to put that winning run across. We just didn’t execute when we needed to.”

STAR OF THE GAME

Jacob Duncan, Cary-Grove, sr., P

Duncan threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings in relief for the victory, and also came through with a two-run single in the eighth inning to bring in the game-winning run.

THE NUMBER

8: Errors committed by Crystal Lake Central.

AND ANOTHER THING...

Although the Tigers struggled in the field, they had a gem in the fifth inning when third baseman Jimmy Mills fielded a ground ball and threw home to catcher Alec Bolanowski, who tagged out Cary-Grove’s Jack Thompson to prevent a run.

Cary-Grove 8, Crystal Lake Central 2 (8 inn.)

Cary-Grove 100 010 06 – 8 9 2

CL Central 100 001 00 – 2 7 8

WP: Jacob Duncan, 1-0 (2.2IP, 3H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 1K). LP: Irwin, 0-1 (1IP, 3H, 5R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K).

Top hitters–Cary-Grove: Ryan Weaver 1-5 (2RBIs), Quinn Priester 3-5 (2B, 2RBIs), Jacob Duncan 1-1 (2RBIs, R), Jack Thompson 1-2 (R). CL Central: Jordan Daugherty (2B, RBI), Trey Desimone 2-4 (RBI).