4A State Semifinal: Morgan, Huntley Cruise Past Lake Park

JOLIET, IL - In the first 4A Semi Final matchup of the night, Huntley received a seven-inning complete game two-hitter from LHSP Kyle Morgan (McHenry JC commit) to top Lake Park 5-1 sending the Red Raiders to the 4A State Championship.

Morgan set the tone early with his fastball/curveball mix sitting down eight of the first nine Lake Park Lancers he faced, averaging a strikeout an inning. The first spark for the Lancers came in the 4th frame when SS Anthony Deconcilis (Illinois-Springfield commit) lead the inning off lacing a double into the right/center gap. Heads up, aggressive baserunning by Deconcilis advanced the senior to third on a fly out to short center, setting up an RBI flyout to deep center from Zach Aehlert (Belmont Abbey commit).

Morgan did not allow another Lancer to touch home and pitched himself out of a potential big fifth inning, firing up the Huntley faithful. In a emotional performance on the mound, Morgan finished with a line: 7IP, 2H, 1R/ER, 5K, 2BB.

Huntley did most of their damage in the third inning. Jason Peters got the rally going with a flare to short right field. After a sacrifice bunt, Mike Talesky lined a ground ball off Lake Park starting pitcher Ryan Behling’s (North Central commit) leg and Jordan Goldstein (Dubuque commit) reached on a ground ball that was mishandled by the Lake Park third baseman. With the bases loaded, Kamrin Hoffmann (Benedictine commit) cleared them quickly smashing a three-run triple to the opposite field gap. Next guy up Matt Rodriguez drove a ball deep to right field, allowing Hoffmann to come into score easily. Four run inning complete.

The Red Raiders tacked one one more in the 6th when AJ Henkle looped a single into centerfield and immediately stole second base the next pitch. Back to back walks moved Henkle to third base giving Joey Petryniec the opportunity to roll a RBI groundout to second base, 5-1 score after 6 and eventual final.

STATISTICAL HIGHLIGHTS

+ Kamrin Hoffmann (Huntley, 2018): 1-for-1, 3RBI, R, 2BB

+ Mike Talesky (Huntley, 2019): 2-for-3, R

+ A.J. Henkle (Huntley, 2019): 1-for-3, R, SB

With the win, the Huntley Red Raiders will play the winner of Plainfield North/Sandburg for the 4A State crown Saturday at 5pm @ Joliet’s Route 66 Stadium.

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