First-inning eruption offensively carries Doggy Paddlers to home victory

QUINCY — There is something about the first inning for the Quincy Doggy Paddlers this summer.

For the second time in less than three weeks, the Doggy Paddlers scored 10 runs in a first inning, doing so Tuesday against the Burlington Bees in an 18-8 victory at QU Stadium. Quincy also scored 10 runs in the first frame of a 13-4 win over the O’Fallon Hoots on June 14.

Fourteen Doggy Paddlers hitters came to the plate in Tuesday’s 10-run first. Six different players recorded an RBI, and four players reached base twice. Brady Kindhart had an RBI double and a two-run single in the inning, and Jimmy Koza had two hits and an RBI.

Tommy Harrison hit a two-run home run in the third to stretch the Doggy Paddlers’ lead to 12-3. This was Harrison’s first home run in his last 10 games after he hit three homers in his first seven games as a Doggy Paddler.

The Bees drew within five runs with a three-run fourth and another run in the fifth, but they never got any closer. The Doggy Paddlers scored four unearned runs with two outs in the sixth, and Jameson Johnson delivered the game-ending blow with a bases-loaded, two-out single in the eighth, putting the mercy rule into effect.

Every Doggy Paddlers hitter reached base at some point. Kindhart finished 4 for 6 with four RBIs and scored three runs. Culver-Stockton College’s Kannon Kirk went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and reached base four times in his Doggy Paddlers debut. Koza, Harrison, Johnson, and Wandel Campana all had two hits in a 16-hit performance by Quincy.

The Doggy Paddlers (11-15, 2-1 second half) will play three consecutive road games before returning to QU Stadium for a doubleheader with the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp on Saturday. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 3:05 p.m.