Hawks secure spot in GLVC Tournament with three wins, look to complete sweep

QUINCY — The situations were strikingly similar, the circumstances decidedly different and the outcomes remarkably the same.

Credit Logan Mueller and Roman Harrison for each having a little Harry Houdini in their act.

Mueller, a sophomore right-handed reliever, was summoned from the Quincy University baseball team’s bullpen with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth inning of Friday morning’s resumption of Thursday’s suspended game against Illinois-Springfield.

He promptly induced back-to-back groundouts to get out the inning having allowed only one run. The Hawks ultimately won 7-4.

About three hours later, in the seventh inning of the first game of the regularly scheduled Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader at QU Stadium, the Prairie Stars loaded the bases with no outs and trailing by five runs.

In came Harrison, the sophomore left-handed reliever who has become the Hawks’ closer. He recorded three consecutive outs to put a stamp on a 6-2 victory. With the 10-5 victory in the nightcap, the Hawks earned three victories on the day and secured their spot in the GLVC Tournament.

Their seed for next week’s postseason event at Mtn Dew Park in Marion, Ill., is still to be determined. Quincy and Illinois-Springfield will finish their four-game series at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, and with a victory the Hawks will wrap up the No. 4 seed.

QU (24-25, 21-14 GLVC) and Missouri-St. Louis (30-19, 21-14 GLVC) are currently tied for fourth. The Tritons play Missouri S&T on Saturday.

The Hawks and Tritons did not face each other in the regular season, so a tie would be broken by record against common opponents. They have faced six common GLVC opponents with Quincy going 15-9 in those series and UMSL finishing 13-11. Thus, the Hawks can do no worse than fourth with a victory Saturday.

Playing only one game should feel like a luxury.

The Hawks and Prairie Stars were tied at 2 midway through the fifth inning Thursday when thunderstorms forced the game to be suspended. It resumed Friday morning with Quincy at bat and Joe Huffman getting the day started right.

With one out, Brock Boynton and David Broughton drew back-to-back walks, and after Dustin DuPont flew out to center field, Huffman roped a three-run home run to right field. The Hawks never trailed again with Mueller performing his magic act in the top of the next inning.

Mueller worked 1 ⅔ innings, allowing one run and two hits before turning it over to left-hander Aaron Smith for a scoreless eighth inning. Ben Draeger retired all three batters he faced in the ninth inning to record the save.

Griffin Kirn, who pitched five innings Thursday with six strikeouts, earned the victory.

In the first full seven-inning game, the Hawks scored three runs in the first inning on an Austin Simpson RBI double, a Jose Ortiz RBI groundout and a Jake Vitale RBI single. Kobe Essien worked five innings, allowing one run and four hits with four strikeouts to earn the victory. Harrison earned his eighth save of the season with his magic act.

In the final game of the day, Quincy built a 7-0 lead with Simpson driving in runs in both the first and second innings and Ortiz crushing a three-run home run to right field in the second inning. Logan Munroe worked 1 ⅔ scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory.

The three victories in one day are believed to be the first tripleheader swept in program history.