Dupont’s blast completes rally as nationally ranked Hawks sweep twinbill from Saints

QUINCY — Dustin Dupont hoped some verbal encouragement would work.

The fly ball he hit in the bottom of the sixth inning Friday afternoon seemed to have enough steam behind it to clear QU Stadium’s left field stone wall. Still, as the Quincy University baseball team’s left-handed hitting catcher bounced out of the batter’s box, he couldn’t be 100-percent certain it did.

“I was kind of yelling at the ball, trying to tell it to get over,” Dupont said.

He saw it bounce as if it had hit concrete, but he wasn’t sure it was ricocheting off Sycamore Street north of the stadium or something else.

“I thought it hit the top of the wall,” Dupont said. “But someone told me it went right over. After that, it was kind of all a blur, just going crazy. Yeah, there’s no better feeling, which is the case with any home run you hit, but especially one like that.”

This one changed everything.

Dupont’s opposite-field home run came with two outs and two runners on and the ninth-ranked Hawks facing a two-run deficit. Without his big swing, the rally may never have materialized and Maryville may have gained the upperhand in the four-game Great Lakes Valley Conference series.

Instead, the Hawks won 6-5 to complete an afternoon sweep — they won the first game 14-6 — and guarantee themselves at worst a weekend split. Winning the finale at noon Saturday would give QU its sixth series victory of the season and a surge in momentum.

That’s already the case as the Hawks (22-8, 11-4 GLVC) bounced back from Thursday’s ninth-inning collapse that resulted in a 6-5 loss.

“That is huge for the team,” QU center fielder Brock Boynton said. “That was by far the biggest game of the year with the team coming together and finishing the job. That’s a win. That’s what this team needed. Huge.”

The way it transpired wiped away any residual impact Thursday’s loss might have had.

In Friday’s opener, left-handed starter Griffin Kirn set the tone by tossing three scoreless innings out of the gate. The offense took care of the rest.

A two-run second inning featured a Nolan Wosman solo home run and a Boynton RBI single. Then came a six-run third inning with Zach Parks smacking a two-run double and Dupont following with a three-run home run. Dupont added a solo home run in the sixth as he went 3 for 4 with three runs scored and four RBIs.

Parks also went 3 for 4 with three runs scored, while Austin Simpson, Luke Napleton and Logan Voth each had two hits.

Kirn struck out seven and walked two over five innings to improve his individual record to 3-1.

“The way our last seven or eight days have gone, that was big for morale and big for this group,” QU coach Matt Schissel said. “It shows we can come back out and put things behind us. It was huge.”

Neither the offense nor the starting pitching were as crisp in the nightcap.

Right-hander Kobe Essien lasted just 2⅓ innings, striking out four and walking four while allowing one run and two hits. He was pulled in the third inning after allowing a home run, a single and a walk.

Maryville carried the 1-0 lead until the fifth when Quincy scored twice on Boynton’s two-run home run to right field. Cruz Meier had stemmed the tide after Essien’s exit, tossing 2 ⅔ scoreless innings before an error, a one-out single and two-out walk in the sixth forced Schissel to go to the bullpen.

Left-handed reliever Tim Reinholz uncorked a wild pitch to force in the tying run as he walked the first batter he faced on four straight pitches. Back to the bullpen the Hawks went and right-hander Eli Ecton allowed a two-run single to the first batter he faced and gave up another run on a wild pitch.

At that moment, things looked bleak.

The Hawks never think that way with the offensive firepower they possess.

“It’s always just a matter of time with our bats,” Boynton said. “It’s a ticking time bomb until we go off. It happened today. We have the most dangerous lineup in the country, and it’s just a matter of time.”

In the bottom of the sixth, Simpson led off with a double, took third on Napleton’s sacrifice fly and scored on a Nolan Wosman’s sacrifice fly after Logsdon drew a one-out walk. Parks drew a two-out walk, and Dupont delivered the biggest hit of his burgeoning career.

“To come back and keep battling, that’s what we have to keep doing,” the junior transfer from Danville Area Community College said. “Keep doing that as a team. We did that today, and luckily we came up with two. Now we have to keep it going.”