Lawson enjoys view from third-base coaching box as QHS baseball team compiles 17 runs, 22 hits

QUINCY — Quincy High School baseball coach Rick Lawson did not have to do much more in the third base coaches’ box than wave his right arm in a circle to send baserunner after baserunner home.

The Blue Devils cranked out 22 hits and scored eight runs in two different innings in a 17-2 rout of Rock Island Alleman in Western Big 6 Conference play on Monday.

“These are fun,” Lawson said. “It makes it easy from my standpoint. I just kind of stand back and cheer them on. I’m a big cheerleader in games like these.”

Five different Blue Devils had three hits, and every player hit safely and drove in or scored a run.

“We came out hot,” said Quincy center fielder Trace Routh, who went 3 for 3 with three RBIs. “The boys felt good.”

The Blue Devils came to bat in the bottom of the second inning with the game tied at one.

That is when the offensive onslaught began. The first seven and 10 of the first 11 batters reached base in an eight-run inning. Jacob Salisbury gave the Blue Devils a 4-1 lead with a bases-clearing triple over right fielder Jackson Smith’s head. Three consecutive singles after that led to two more runs. Cameron Lawson scored from third on a Gavin Fink attempted steal of second, then Nate Konrad blasted his third home run of the season — a solo blast to left field.

“It’s fun for them when you have that many guys hitting the ball hard,” Rick Lawson said. “It wasn’t just bloop singles. There were barrels in the gaps, balls hit down the line, Nate’s home run, a lot of balls hit well today.”

The Blue Devils’ second eight-run frame ended the game. After Konrad’s flyout resulted in the first out of the fourth inning, the Blue Devils sent 10 more hitters to the plate without making an out, eight of which recorded hits. Mason Ritter’s fourth hit of the game, a well-struck single, scored Fink and put the mercy rule into effect.

“We’re just having fun,” Ritter said. “That’s all it is.”

Quincy has scored 41 runs in its last four games and 62 runs in its last seven.

“Everybody’s seeing beach balls right now,” Routh said.

The Blue Devils now sport a 12-13 record after a 2-10 start. Leadoff hitter Kade Parkhill, who went 3 for 4 on Monday, had a feeling a turnaround was coming sooner or later.

“I’ve grown up playing with these guys, and I know what we all can do, so it was just a matter of time before we all started clicking and things started going our way,” Parkhill said.

The Blue Devils have a chance to get to .500 for the first time this season when they play at Camp Point Central on Tuesday, and they could eclipse the .500 mark in a rematch with Alleman (22-9, 7-6 WB6) in Rock Island on Wednesday.

“Even though we were 2-10, you saw the ability that these guys had,” Rick Lawson said. “We were losing tough games, just not finding ways to win them, and now they’re finding a way to win the tight ones and creating some space in other games, which is nice. It makes it easy on your pitching staff and easy on us old coaches.”

Parkhill expects the Blue Devils (12-13, 5-8) to keep the train rumbling down the track on Tuesday and beyond.

“Everything is just clicking together,” Parkhill said. “We’re just rolling now, and we’re going to keep it that way.”