The No. 1 prospect in the state, RHP Quinn Priester, was on the mound for Cary-Grove, in a much-anticipated start against conference foe Huntley. Priester, who was full-go, with no pitch-count limitations, led Cary-Grove with his arm and his bat, to a 4-3 walk-off win over No. 15 Huntley.

Priester, a Texas Christian commit, is the No. 20 overall prospect in the 2019 class and he showed why on Saturday. The wide-shouldered, highly-athletic, 6-foot-3, 200-pound, right-hander showed off one of the top fastballs, if not the best, in the entire Midwest. On top of the electric fastball, Priester mixed in a devastating swing-and-miss curveball as well as the occasional changeup, that flashed plus potential. Priester, who is as polished as it gets for a high school pitcher also delivers the ball with incredible ease and athleticism. Priester did not throw a four-seam fastball under 90 mph the entire 6.2 innings he was out there. The fastball sat 90-95 mph throughout, the majority being 92-95 and he touched 96 once. In fact, Priester, when he needed it, still had 95 mph in his back pocket in the sixth inning and touched a couple of 93’s and 94’s in the seventh. Priester scattered seven hits, gave up three runs, two earned, struck out 11 and walked one.

IL: @QuinnPriester up to 96 in the 1st and has touched multiple 95’s thru 2. @huntley_bball leads @cgtrojanbasebal 1-0, B2. @NathanRode @SeanDuncan729 pic.twitter.com/hyamJBqN60

— PBR Illinois (@PBRIllinois) April 6, 2019

Almost equally as impressive were Priester’s at-bats on the day. Priester, hits in the four-hole for Cary-Grove and was the only Trojan to collect multiple hits on the day. With the game tied in the bottom of the seventh, Priester hit a ball to the left-center field wall and floated around the bases for a leadoff triple. After Huntley intentionally walked the bases loaded, they recorded two outs but walked Jack Thompson, forcing in Priester, for the walk-off, 4-3 game-winning walk.

Another clutch hit from Priester came with Cary-Grove trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth. With one out and two men on, he delivered a go-ahead, two-run triple to right field and would later come around to score to make the score 3-1 at the time. Priester finished the day 2-for-3 with two triples, two runs scored and two RBI.

The next best thing to Priester’s indelible performance, was the Huntley offense. It is easy to imagine a lot of high school teams that were facing 90-95 mph, with three above-average offerings, would be lucky to just put a couple of balls in play. Not the Red Raiders of Huntley. This group is experienced (finished runner-up in Class 4A last season) and put together extremely impressive at-bats up-and-down the lineup, all game long. The Red Raiders out-hit Cary-Grove 7-4 and only had one, one-two-three inning, on the day.  

Huntley’s most impressive inning was their last, the top of the seventh, trailing 3-1 and down to their final three outs. After a strikeout to start off the inning, Kyle Maurer (McHenry County JC commit) and Jackson Broom (Wisconsin-Oshkosh commit) singled sharply to put runners at first and second. Dylan Janke (IU-Kokomo commit) followed with a line-drive, RBI double that sailed over the right-fielders head, making the score 3-2 and putting runners on second and third. The bases eventually were loaded with two outs and Priester’s final pitch of the game was a breaking ball that hit Hunter Rumachik (McHenry County JC commit), forcing in the game-tying run. Cary-Grove turned to left-handed pitcher Ethan Estes to record the final out, and he did just that, inducing a line out to the second baseman.

Junior RHP Jimmy Fairley started on the mound for Huntley and went three innings without giving up a hit or a run, striking out three and walking two. Rumachik led the way offensively for Huntley, going 2-for-3 with a run, RBI and hit-by-pitch.

For more in-depth notes from the games - and all other games that we cover - visit the Illinois Scout Blog later.

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