Rock Island uses 10-run second inning to wrap up WB6 softball crown at Quincy’s expense

QUINCY — Quincy High School’s softball team was coming off its best performance of the season, but there was no carryover on Tuesday from a Saturday afternoon doubleheader sweep of Granite City.

Rock Island (19-9) all but wrapped up the contest with a 10-run second inning on its way to a 14-7 triumph that clinched the Western Big 6 Conference crown.

Rock Island, which defeated Quincy 1-0 in a mid-April matchup, is now 12-1 in the WB6 with one game remaining. It has a 2 1/2-game advantage over Geneseo (9-3, 21-8) and Sterling (9-3, 16-6). Quincy falls to 10-18 and 2-11.

“Saturday was the best ball we had played all season — two great games — but … it’s (also) tough to perform well against a team like Rock Island,” first-year QHS coach Anjay Heinecke said. “We’ll be focusing now on trying to get ready for the regional tournament (later this month).”

Quincy, which defeated Granite City 13-3 and 17-7 three days earlier, didn’t muster any kind of consistent offense to offset a Rock Island club that entered the game with a .308 team batting average. The Rocks collected eight hits, most of them ringing line drives, and also capitalized on four QHS errors and eight walks.

Quincy was one out away from being run-ruled in the fifth inning, but the Blue Devils scored three runs with two outs to continue the game. QHS then added three late runs to make the score more respectable.

“We actually played pretty well after that second inning,” Heinecke said. “The girls fought through it.” 

Avary Hlubek homered for Quincy, and Kasey Leenerts smacked a pair of doubles. Kamryn Hlubek swatted a pair of singles.

Lilly McDaniels stroked three hits and drove in four runs for Rock Island, which sent 15 batters to the plate in the second inning. The Rocks only had three hits in that 10-run inning, thanks to multiple QHS errors and walks. Two of those hits came by the same person — McDaniel.

Maddie Carroll (12-3) was the winning pitcher for Rock Island. She and reliever Abby Dillard combined for 13 strikeouts — seven of them called.

Sophomore Izzy Weppler started and was the losing pitcher for QHS, but the left-hander drew praise from Heinecke afterward.

“Right now, we don’t have a lot of pitching,” said Heinecke, who explained some late-season roster changes have left the Blue Devils short-handed in the area of arms. 

Heinecke said she was forced to use Weppler in a situation that she is realistically a year away from, but she lauded the rookie for battling through a rough assignment. It was a performance that included throwing about 150 pitches for the second time in three days, including 63 in the 10-run second inning.

“We’re going to be busy in the offseason developing some pitching,” Heinecke said. “That’s going to be our main focus (in the offseason).”