Red Raider baseball duo continues at MCC

HUNTLEY — Two Huntley alumni, sophomore Brandon Hanley and freshman Ryan Quinlan, are on the McHenry County College’s baseball team. The Scots were 8-8, after a doubleheader sweep of Olice Harvey College, 12-2 and 14-3 March 23, their first home contests.

Hanley plays catcher and was a member of the Scots’ NJCAA Region 4 Division I title winners last  year. Quinlan is a second baseman, who came to the Crystal Lake school after a redshirt year at Eastern Illinois University.

“Hanley will get the lion’s innings at catcher this season, while Quinlan will have opportunities at second base,” MCC coach Jared Wacker said.

The victories against OHC snapped a five-game loss streak, four to Iowa Western Community College and one to Kankakee. Gabe Ness, a freshman from Willowbrook, gained the first game pitching win and Christian Graves took the second game victory. The offense was spread out, highlighted by a three-run home run by Ryan Skwarek in the first game and several players with two hits in the second contest.

“We saw a lot of good things today,” Wacker said of the latest wins.  “We played a tough schedule, against Iowa Western, a team we saw at NJCAA District last season. They exposed some of our weaknesses, things we need to work on if we aspire to be in districts again this year.”

Some of the other Huntley baseball alumni now on college rosters:

Ryan Bakes, Class of 2023, is a sophomore catcher at the University of South Carolina (17-7 record). He played in 12 games as a freshman last season and earned First Year SEC Academic honors. He was Class 4A All-State at Huntley his senior year, hitting .406 with 13 home runs and 37 RBIs.

Brayden Bakes is a redshirt freshman outfielder at Illinois State University. At HHS, he was a two-time All-State selection by Illinois College Baseball Coaches Association and FVC Player of the Year.

Malachi Paplanus is a freshman pitcher at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Parker Schuring is a sophomore pitcher for Northern Illinois University Huskies in DeKalb.

Eric Lin, Class of 2021, is a senior right-handed pitcher at Division 1 University of Kansas. He played from 2022-24 at South Alabama. This season, he has a 1-2 record in nine games with one save and struck out 10 batters for the Jayhawks.

Andrew Ressler is a sophomore pitcher at D-1 Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Last season he had 12 strikeouts in 11 relief appearances.