{"id":72603,"date":"2026-05-27T04:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/72603\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T04:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:23:09","slug":"huntley-rolls-past-lake-zurich-secures-spot-in-class-4a-sectional-final-against-undefeated-barrington-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/72603\/","title":{"rendered":"Huntley rolls past Lake Zurich, secures spot in Class 4A sectional final against undefeated Barrington \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fight for the other spot in the Class 4A Barrington Sectional softball final against host Barrington came down to a pair of teams in Huntley<\/a> and Lakes Zurich that both entered Tuesday with 11 wins in their past 14 games. <\/p>\n

But when it came down to crunch time, it was top-seeded Huntley\u2019s ability to get the jump on Lake Zurich early in an eventual 13-1 win. The Red Raiders (26-8) will face No. 1 Barrington in Saturday\u2019s 11 a.m. sectional championship, marking the 10th straight time the programs have met in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Barrington (35-0) defeated Hononegah 6-1 in in the first semifinal at the Fillies\u2019 Field of Dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just definitely wanted to bring energy from the start,\u201d said Huntley senior first baseman Lyla Ginczycki, who finished with two doubles, two runs and two RBIs. \u201cWe knew that this could not be our last game (because) we want to keep going. Everyone here wants it, so we had everyone picking each other up. Being loud in the dugout and just not letting the pressure get to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raiders got going early with four runs in the first that saw Ginczycki drive in two of those runs on a double.<\/p>\n

After the Bears (20-11) scored their lone run off an RBI double by center fielder Olivia Slawny, Huntley expanded its advantage with three more runs in the top of the third, featuring an RBI single from junior right fielder Lana Hobday that had the Raiders ahead 7-1.<\/p>\n

Next came an RBI sacrifice fly from freshman left fielder Piper Heimbrodt in the top of the fourth, making it 8-1.<\/p>\n

Heimbrodt (2 for 2, three runs, five RBIs) played a key role in a five-run outburst in the top of the seventh with a three-run homer over the center field wall that closed out the scoring. <\/p>\n

Huntley finished with 16 hits. Aubrina Adamik, who recently became the program\u2019s all-time leader in games played, finished 2 for 4 with two runs and one RBI, Katelyn Bayness had three hits and three runs scored, and Grace Benson had three hits and two steals. Keely Fewell drove in a pair of runs.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, junior hurler Layla Olson went the distance fanning seven as she allowed just five hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at us, we\u2019re a road team,\u201d Huntley coach Mark Petryniec said. \u201cWe don\u2019t play that many home games, so this team is prepared for this situation. It (also) helps giving your pitcher a four-run lead early in the first inning.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Lake Zurich coach Nicole Pieper, it ended up being a positive experience for her unit that has eight underclassmen on their varsity roster and at one point was 9-7.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team has been fighting all season long,\u201d Pieper said. \u201cWe told them to stay poised and control the things they could control. Today Huntley (was) hitting the ball hard, finding the gaps and taking advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fight for the other spot in the Class 4A Barrington Sectional softball final against host Barrington came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[13117,51],"class_list":["post-72603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-zurich","tag-softball","tag-zurich"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116644636564398113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}