Matt Schuckman, Sports Editor
The inaugural Muddy River Showcase is taking place June 18 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. The Illinois vs. Missouri format for senior prep basketball players will feature a girls game at 3 p.m. with the boys game to follow at 5 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door and all seating is general…
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QUINCY — To the winner go the spoils. So it’s only fitting the Quincy High School girls soccer team landed the most players of any program on the All-Western Big 6 Conference teams. The Blue Devils placed three on the first team, two on the second team and five on honorable mention after they went…
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PLEASANT PLAINS, Ill. — Everybody likes bacon, right? That’s undoubtedly true of the Quincy Notre Dame baseball players’ parents, grandparents and fans. But if you’re thinking it’s the sizzle-in-the-frying-pan kind of pork product they are so enamored with, you’d be sorely mistaken. In this case, “Bacon” is their good luck charm, a 4-inch crocheted, stuffed…
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PLEASANT PLAINS, Ill. — The darkening clouds rolling in from the northeast mimicked the situation the Quincy Notre Dame baseball team faced. Ominous, very ominous. “I kept looking over my shoulder and seeing those clouds coming closer and closer to the point you see the line of rain at the right-field fence,” said Jack Linenfelser,…
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PLEASANT PLAINS, Ill. — The Quincy Notre Dame baseball team ran its winning streak to 23 consecutive games and improved to 32-2 — the second-most single-season victories in program history — with Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over Shelbyville in the Class 2A sectional semifinals at Reiser Field. Muddy River Sports Editor Matt Schuckman captured the Raiders’…
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COLUMBIA, Ill. — The Illinois girls state soccer championships are returning to North Central College’s Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium in Naperville this weekend for the first time in three years. It’s only fitting Quincy Notre Dame returns, too. As QND coach Mark Longo put it, it is the Raiders’ “home away from home.” Figuring out how to…
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The inaugural Muddy River Showcase is taking place June 18 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. The Illinois vs. Missouri format for senior prep basketball players will feature a girls game at 3 p.m. with the boys game to follow at 5 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door and all seating is general…
Read Full Article 
QUINCY — The old bully on the postseason playground threatened to derail the Quincy Notre Dame baseball team’s title quest yet again. That was until a tag and swing knocked Beardstown to its knees. A legendary coaching career went down with it. The Raiders escaped danger in the first inning, tagging out the Tigers’ William…
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QUINCY — The Quincy Notre Dame baseball team kept the good times rolling, winning its 22nd consecutive game with a 6-2 victory over Beardstown in the Class 2A regional championship at Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield. Took a look at how Muddy River Sports Editor Matt Schuckman captured the action through his camera lens:
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The inaugural Muddy River Showcase is taking place June 18 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. The Illinois vs. Missouri format for senior prep basketball players will feature a girls game at 3 p.m. with the boys game to follow at 5 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door and all seating is general…
Read Full Article 
QUINCY — As the size of the gallery grew on the back nine of Sunday’s Quincy Men’s City Golf Championship at Westview Golf Course, the same question was being asked over and over. Who is Rilee West? The answer is clear now. He is a champion. A Barry resident who spent his freshman year of…
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QUINCY — The Great Lakes Valley Conference is going to be represented at the NCAA Division II World Series. A best-of-3 series will decide which team it will be. On Sunday, the Quincy University baseball team learned its opponent for the Midwest Region’s super-regional as third-seeded Illinois-Springfield finished off its undefeated run through Midwest Regional…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — The odds were never in the Quincy University baseball team’s favor. The Hawks suffered a demoralizing 10-5, 12-inning loss to Northwood in Thursday’s opening game of the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional, squandering a 5-1 lead in the ninth inning. “A lot of people would have probably bet a lot of money…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — Some might think Alex Pribyl actually enjoys the suspense. “It’s not me if I don’t make it interesting, isn’t that right?” the Quincy University right-handed reliever said. So the fact he allowed a single and a walk to the first two Davenport hitters in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday with…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — The kind of moments a hitter lives for can be the ones most taxing or debilitating when success eludes you. Lance Logsdon knows how true that can be. The Quincy University junior first baseman faced the opportunity to capitalize on a game-changing at-bat each of the past two weekends. Neither time he…
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Marko Cucuk didn’t shift into cruise control just because his spot in the Illinois boys tennis state tournament field was secure. A sectional championship, a better state seed and the momentum from a string of victories mattered just as much as qualifying for the championships. The Quincy Notre Dame junior took care…
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QUINCY — Aly Young couldn’t stop smiling or shaking her head. Her excitement matched her disbelief. “It’s still just really crazy,” said Young, a sophomore goalkeeper on the Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer team. “I keep saying, ‘What the heck just happened?’” In one sense, the improbable happened. In another, destiny did. Either way, the…
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QUINCY — Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer coach Mark Longo readily admitted Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin controlled the bulk of play Friday. “It was probably 60/40 in their favor,” he said. “It may have been 62/38 or something like that.” Even so, Longo never fully fretted. His stout defense is why. Raiders sophomore goalkeeper Aly Young…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — Griffin Kirn couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong. Last weekend against Lewis in the Great Lakes Valley Conference baseball tournament, the Quincy University left-hander retired the first nine batters he faced without incident. Then in the fourth inning, everything unraveled. He allowed the first six Flyers to collect hits, including four…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — It’s come to be known as the “Quincy inning.” Friday afternoon, the Quincy University baseball team enjoyed putting up one of those crooked numbers on the scoreboard. Leading Northwood 1-0 entering the second inning of an NCAA Division II Midwest Regional elimination game at Farmers Insurance Athletic Complex, the Hawks exploded for…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — Matt Schissel struggled for good reason to calculate whether the Quincy University baseball players were ready to rebound 40 minutes after a gut punch. “I’ll be honest,” the first-year Hawks coach said, “I wasn’t ready to go back and play.” Schissel took at least 25 minutes of that 40-minute gap between games…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — Brock Boynton felt he had to get away. “I actually left the ballpark and took a walk in the woods,” the Quincy University sophomore center fielder said. “It was tough.” With a victory in the opening game of the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional seemingly within its grasp, the fourth-seeded QU baseball…
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CALEDONIA, Mich. — Jay Hammel never forgot. A year ago, when the Quincy University baseball team was eliminated from the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional with a 22-13 loss to Davenport, Hammel worked one inning of relief and allowed two runs and four hits. That crept into his mind as the right-handed pitcher warmed up…
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QUINCY — Dead red is all Ryan Oden said. It’s all Alex Connoyer needed to hear. After Athens right-hander Davis Ishmael loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning Tuesday by sandwiching a hit batter between two walks, the Quincy Notre Dame baseball coach told his junior shortstop to look for nothing but…
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QUINCY — It might not have seemed out of the ordinary to any of the Quincy Gems players to have the 9-year-old son of their pitching coach running around the outfield with them shagging baseballs. Those moments, though, turned out to be priceless. Nearly a decade later, everyone sees why. Quincy Notre Dame left fielder…
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QUINCY — This time, it wasn’t so easy, even if it seemed so in the end. After scoring in the first 10 minutes of both regional matches and outscoring those two opponents 13-0, the Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer team discovered scoring on Piasa Southwestern in Tuesday’s Class 1A QND Sectional semifinal wasn’t going to…
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QUINCY — The QUuncy University baseball team is making its seventh straight appearance in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional this week, the longest such streak in the region. The Hawks open play at 11 a.m. Thursday against Northwood in Caledonia, Mich. QU coach Matt Schissel joined Muddy River Sports Editor Matt Schuckman on the…
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QUINCY — Eryn Cornwell’s focus and concentration when she’s in the pitcher’s circle often robs her of the chance to appreciate Lindsey Fischer’s exuberance. Playing third base provides Cornwell an entirely different view of the show. “I kind of like playing third because I can sit there and watch Lindsey do her thing,” Cornwell said.…
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QUINCY — The expectation exists that on the second Sunday of May the Quincy University baseball team will see its name appear on the NCAA Division II Midwest Region bracket. Yet, until it does, there is always a touch of trepidation. “You really never know with the committee,” QU left-hander Tyler Carpenter said. “But we…
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ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Tyler Carpenter’s effort proved inspiring. That should benefit the Quincy University baseball team in the long run, even if Sunday ended without a conference championship. A left-hander hurler who mostly had been used out of the bullpen this season, Carpenter put the Hawks in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament championship…
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