Baseball: Huntley’s long balls pave way for coach Andy Jakubowski’s 500th victory

ALGONQUIN – Huntley’s players were a little extra eager to get to the ballpark Monday and do something special for their coach.

Ryan Quinlan started it off with a two-run home run in the third inning. An inning later, Brayden Bakes ripped a three-run shot. The next inning, Ryan Bakes added a three-run blast, and the celebration was on.

The Red Raiders defeated Jacobs 12-2 in five innings in their Fox Valley Conference baseball game to give Huntley coach Andy Jakubowski his 500th career victory. Jakubowski recently notched his 400th win as Huntley’s coach; most of his first 100 wins came at Jacobs.

“That was sweet. It was great,” Quinlan said. “Going into this game, that’s all we were thinking. To get that win, to get to 500 is sweet. He definitely deserves it.”

Jakubowski’s son Jake drove up from Heartland Community College, where he pitches, to see the moment, and the Raiders did not waste his trip. Parents and fans had shirts with “500″ for all the players and coaches, and gifts and plaques for Jakubowski.

“It means I’ve been blessed with a lot of great players, coaches, parents, administrators supporting me,” Jakubowski said. “It’s my 28th year teaching, my 23rd as a head coach.

“Our guys have bought into a system of pitching and defense and situational hitting, and we’ve done that for a number of years. It’s been carried down from year to year. Probably what’s most important, and what I’m most proud of, is the relationships.”

Huntley (15-3, 8-2 FVC) fell behind in the first inning when Jacobs (10-9, 5-5) came up with two runs on two hit-by-pitches, an error, an infield hit and a sacrifice fly. After that, Raiders starter Parker Schuring was tough; he had 28 pitches in the first, and 28 total in the next three innings.

“Everything goes ear to ear for me, so I knew I’d come back,” Schuring said. “I had to get locked in and pitch stronger. I knew I had to come back and get it done.”

Quinlan, a left-handed hitter, tied the score with an opposite-field homer in the third on a full count.

“That at-bat [Jacobs’ Anthony Edge] was struggling with his offspeed, so on that pitch I was sitting fastball and got it where I wanted and drove it out,” Quinlan said. “It was a big emotional change. We got our energy back.”

The next inning, Brayden Bakes, another lefty, homered to right field for a 5-2 lead, and the Raiders added another run when Joey Garlin doubled, stole third and scored on a throwing error.

“Ryan Quinlan’s homer to tie it up was a huge factor,” Bakes said. “It was a changeup. In my first at-bat, he threw that changeup, and I wasn’t really thinking it at that time. I sat on that last pitch and drove it out.”

Ryan Bakes hit his deep homer off of sophomore Spencer Drummond. Jacobs coach Jamie Murray thinks highly of Drummond, and told him Huntley’s lineup might be the best he sees in his high school career.

“They have a great hitting lineup. They made some great swings on some good pitches, they got the pitch count up on Anthony,” Murray said. “Some young guys made some good pitches, their guys at the top of the order punished us a little bit.

“They outplayed us. We ran into a team that made some great swings.”

Jakubowski liked the Raiders’ approaches against Edge, who will pitch at Bradley next year.

“When we face tough pitchers like Edge, our plan is to drive their pitch count up and try to get into their bullpen,” Jakubowski said. “I think he tired out. He was 46 pitches after two, 71 after three. You could tell he didn’t have quite the same velo that he had in the first inning, and guys made some adjustments and put some good swings on him.

“Quinlan’s at-bat was awesome staying inside the ball and going the other way and getting us on the board.”

Ryan Dabe also had two RBIs for the Raiders, who dumped the water cooler on Jakubowski in shallow left field after finishing the postgame handshake line.

“I’ve been a part of a lot of [those victories],” Brayden Bakes said. “This is one of the cooler games I’ve been a part of.”

Huntley 12, Jacobs 2 (5 inn.)

Huntley 002 46 – 12 9 2

Jacobs 200 00 – 2 1 1

WP: Parker Schuring (4.1IP, 1H, 2R, 1ER, 2BB, 2K). LP: Anthony Edge (3.1IP, 6H, 6R, 5ER, 3BB, 2K).

Top hitters–Huntley: Ryan Bakes 2-3 (2B, HR, 3RBIs, 2R), Brayden Bakes 1-2 (HR, 3RBIs, 3R), Ryan Quinlan 1-1 (HR, 2RBIs, 2R), Ryan Dabe 1-3 (2RBIs). Jacobs: Gage Martin 1-2 (RBI).