Reyburn finally homers to fulfill coach’s prophecy, punctuating QND’s victory over Brown County

QUINCY — Rich Polak, the Quincy Notre Dame baseball coach, had seen it coming for the last four months. He helps train Raiders junior outfielder Weston Reyburn during the offseason.

“Going into the season, he’d never even had an extra base hit,” Polak said. “He put on 20 pounds of muscle. I said, ‘Listen, you’re going to get extra-base hits, and you’re going to get at least one home run.’”

The second part of Polak’s premonition came true on Monday. Reyburn belted his first career home run — a leadoff shot to left-center field in the sixth inning — during the Raiders’ 10-2 victory over Brown County at Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield.

“I was like, ‘Finally,’” Reyburn said. “I’ve been getting a couple at practice here and there but never hit one in a game in my life.”

Freshman infielder Eli Johnson, who was on deck when Reyburn left the yard, knew Reyburn’s blast was gone the moment it left his bat.

“As soon as I heard Weston hit it — because he’s hit balls like that in batting practice before and they’ve always left — I’m like, ‘He’s going to hit it right where he’s hit them in BP,’” Johnson said. “Every home run he’s hit in BP has been right to that same exact spot.”

Polak enjoyed the moment with Reyburn.

“When he was going around third, we were just laughing at each other because we talked about it back in January,” Polak said. “I’m really happy for that kid.”

Johnson did not let Reyburn stay in the spotlight for long, though. On the seventh pitch of his at-bat, Johnson hit a skyscraping fly ball that barely cleared the left field fence for his fourth home run of the season.

Unlike Reyburn’s longball, Johnson did not think his high drive would carry out of the ballpark.

“Heck no,” Johnson said. “I hit it probably higher than I did far. As soon as I left the box, I was like, ‘Oh, God, I’m going to pop out to the wall like I always do.’”

It counted just the same as Reyburn’s, though.

“It didn’t go out by too much,” Polak said. “The guys were giving him a little grief about that, but hey man, it’s a home run.”

Not to be outdone, Raiders starting pitcher Abram Wiewel struck out 16 batters in six innings while giving up four hits and two runs.

“I was just trying to mix my pitches, mix locations, get ahead early with strike one,” Wiewel said.

Those 16 strikeouts set a new career high for the senior right-hander, eclipsing the 13 he had in two previous outings this season. Wiewel has compiled a 2.14 ERA with 69 strikeouts in 36 innings and is hitting .516 with 11 home runs this season.

“There aren’t enough words for what that kid has done for us this year,” Polak said. “He’s been unbelievable for us.”

Brown County coach Jared Hoots said Wiewel was a good as any pitcher the Hornets have faced.

“It seemed like Abram had a little extra today,” Hoots said. “He was pumping. I don’t know if they had a gun on him or not, but that was by far the hardest thrower we’ve seen. He was bringing it. His offspeed was nice and tight. It made it hard for our hitters, but that’s the type of pitching we’re going to see in regionals, so that’s why I like seeing quality teams. It prepares you for regionals.”

The Raiders struck first for three runs in the first inning. The Hornets got on the board with a solo home run by Maverick Henry that clanked off the roof of a car parked on Ninth Street, which runs parallel to the left field wall.

“I’ll give him credit,” Wiewel said of Henry’s home run. “I made a good pitch, and he put a good swing on it. He won the battle there.”

The Hornets scratched across another run in the fourth. Raiders catcher Oliver Triplett overthrew first base when Myer Maxwell struck out on a ball in the dirt with two outs.

The Raiders blew the game open with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, capped by Logan Sutton’s two-run double with one out. Five of the first six batters reached base, and the Raiders were only a home run shy of hitting for the team cycle in that inning.

“It seems like they’re a momentum team,” Hoots said of QND. “Once they get a little bit of momentum, they strike gold, and they did that.”

Wiewel worked out of a runners-on-second-and-third, one-out jam in the top of the sixth, setting the stage for Reyburn and Johnson’s back-to-back homers.

“When Brum got out of that inning, and we came back with those two bombs, that finally put an exclamation point on it,” Johnson said.

The Raiders (16-6) will play host to Quincy High School on Tuesday, while Brown County (20-8) will face Beardstown on the road on Thursday.