Huntley 9 wins in wild conditions

HUNTLEY – Huntley head baseball coach Andy Jakubowski has much to be pleased about in the season’s first handful of games and a 5-1 record. The first few weeks of the season have featured 70-degree days but also a week of cancelled games due to weather.

“I love our bullpen right now,” Jakubowski said, “They know their roles and we are pretty deep. We are still trying to get our starting pitching extended but we have struggled with the weather so that shows how valuable our bullpen is.”

On a chilly Tuesday it was a bullpen game for the Red Raiders’ hurlers. Seven of them, starter Adam Guazzo, who was followed by Peyton Barr, Andrew Ressler, Malachi Paplanus, Vinny Costantino, Parker Schuring and Michael Vitellari totaled 19 strikeouts and allowed one hit in a 7-0 victory over Harvard.

The Red Raiders’ bats have been a consistent force to lead the team to averaging 10 runs a game.

“Juniors Ryan Bakes and Brayden Bakes are jump starting our offense and they are definitely valuable assets to have at the top of the order. Our third, fourth and fifth hitters, Joe Garlin, Brandon Hanley and Ryan Kelly have definitely reaped the benefits of having them on base,” Jakubowski said.

Hanley, a senior, knew early on his favorite sport would be baseball.

“I started to learn about playing catcher from my dad, Brion, when I was 8-years-old,” Hanley said.

Hanley’s dad is an HHS alum who played baseball at Eastern Illinois University.

Hanley is a three-year letter winner for the Red Raiders and he is a baseball specialist. He refines his baseball skills with the help of Ryan Sienko, of the Los Angeles Dodgers, in the off-season.

Hanley, like several Red Raiders seniors, is headed to college baseball next spring, going north to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. It seemed a little odd he is heading north to play baseball on a 32-degree day but he is used to that.

“We played a game last season at Schaumburg and it snowed,” he said.