Lawson escapes fifth-inning jam, Brown tosses two scoreless innings in relief in 4-3 victory for QHS

STERLING, Ill. — The Quincy High School baseball team escaped a jam in the fifth inning, and reliever Nick Brown threw two scoreless innings of relief to preserve a 4-3 victory over Sterling on Wednesday afternoon in a Western Big 6 Conference game.

An error and two singles scored a run for Sterling in the bottom of the fifth inning, and the Golden Warriors had runners at first and third with no outs. However, Blue Devils starter Cameron Lawson got Adrian Monarrez to ground out to second and Cale Nettleton to fly out to right without Bryce Hartman scoring. Lawson walked Eli Penne to load the bases, but Tatum Allen flew out to end the threat.

Quincy’s runs came in the first and third innings. The Blue Devils loaded the bases with a single, a walk and a hit batter to start the game. Kade Parkhill scored on Mason Ritter’s single, and Mason Dent scored from third when Nate Konrad was picked off at second base.

Parkhill and Lawson hit back-to-back doubles in third inning to account for one run, and a groundout by Dent scored courtesy runner Shane Pillars.

Ritter was the only Blue Devil to collect two hits.

Lawson scattered nine hits and walked one in five innings to earn the victory.

The Blue Devils, who lost 10 of their first 12 games, improved to 11-14.