Baseball squad’s pitching depth proves key

HUNTLEY — Huntley’s pitching staff has been one of the reasons the Red Raiders baseball team has one all but one game in the season’s first half.

The Red Raiders were 14-1 overall, 8-0 Fox Valley Conference and the pitchers have limited opponents’ hitters with a 1.43 ERA and chalked up more than 100 strikeouts.

“We are deeper as a pitching staff than in the past few years,” Huntley head coach Andy Jakubowski said. “We have gone 11 deep this year when we usually go eight or nine deep. Defensively,.950 or higher (fielding percentage) is what we target and we are sitting at .963 so I am happy about that.”

Huntley right handed-pitcher Malachi Paplanus has recovered from an an arm injury which limited his junior season to a few innings and he is happy to be a contributor again. He is a D-1 Wright State University recruit.

“It happened five or six games into last season,” Paplanus said of the injury. “The hardest part was accepting that you’re hurt, kind of the five stages of grief. I did physical therapy for six weeks, then was cleared for long-toss in July.”

Paplanus achieved his fifth victory of the season in an 8-0 shutout of Crystal Lake Central on April 16. The visitors’ offense included a home run from AJ Putty and three hits each by TJ Jakubowski and Haiden Janke.

“Paplanus did a good job with the weather in the first inning with bad footing. He has always had a good three mix of pitches and now uses his change-up and slider as his out pitches,” Andy Jakubowski said.

Paplanus and fellow senior Colby Aschenbauch, who is a verbal commit to Loras College next year, have the most pitching experience, but the Red Raiders are deep in talent.

A 6-2 win over Prairie Ridge April 15 featured junior Mason Leske who earned the victory as he allowed two runs on two hits and struck out three and walked three. Sophomore Travis Dudycha worked two innings, and fellow reliever senior Louis Siriano, a McHenry County College recruit, finished the game in the seventh. Putty and Janke led the offense with two hits each.

“I did a good job with my off-speed pitches. It’s a matter of getting reps on the varsity level,” Leske, a right-hander, said.

“We have an outstanding group of sophomore pitchers, who do a nice job – Dudycha, Josh Rudnik and Andrew Borkowski,” Andy Jakubowski said.

Huntley will host Hampshire, 12-2 overall, 4-2 FVC, April 19.