Hawks survive with one-run victory, move closer to playing for GLVC Tournament title

ST. LOUIS — Three outs away from winning a second round game in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, Quincy University baseball coach Matt Schissel was surprisingly relaxed.

“I was probably the calmest person in the ballpark,” Schissel said.

The rest of the QU dugout was on pins and needles.

“I can’t lie to you,” said Jay Hammel, the right-handed starter who pitched the first six innings. “If someone says they weren’t, I think they are lying to you. Absolutely, I was. It’s not that I didn’t have trust, but it was a close one.”

Sam Stephens put everyone at ease rather quickly.

The left-handed reliever struck out the three Indianapolis batters he faced in the bottom, needing just 12 pitches to preserve a 4-3 victory in a game moved to Weber FIeld on the Maryville University campus.

“That’s the kind of stuff you think about all the time I feel like,” Stephens said. “That’s the stuff you prepare yourself for throughout the summer. Every year, that’s kind of the moment you wait for.”

It pushes Quincy (32-20) a step closer to the tourney title. The Hawks will face either Lewis or Maryville at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Lou Brock Sports Complex on the Lindenwood campus. A victory will put the Hawks in the championship game. A loss means they have to play an elimination game at 9 a.m. Sunday.

No one is getting caught looking ahead to Sunday just yet, although winning an emotion-filled game had the Hawks feeling giddy Friday.

“When you win a game like that, it’s kind of good to celebrate about it in the moment and look at all the stuff we did really well,” Stephens said. “Now the mood is ideally we have two more games to win and you’re looking to host a regional.”

With two of the three teams ahead of Quincy in the latest NCAA Division II Midwest Region rankings have already lost in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, the possibility of the Hawks leapfrogging a couple of them exists.

That’s as long as QU keeps winning.

“Close games prepare us for this type of moment,” Hammel said. “We say that’s a tournament win right there. When you figure out how to win one of those games in this setting, it is a legitimate tournament win that keeps you alive.

“Guys were saying it was the most exciting game they’ve been a part of. And it just carries on to the next day.”

Hammel allowed two unearned runs in the top of the first inning as the Greyhounds capitalized on a throwing error, but the senior righty settled down thereafter and allowed only one run and six hits the next five innings.

“I knew there was a lot of game left, so that didn’t bother me at all,” Hammel said of falling behind 2-0.

He struck out three and walked one, improving to 8-2 overall.

“At the end, your ultimate goal is giving your team a chance to win,” Hammel said. “I felt like I gave my all and did the best I could for that possibility.”

The offense picked him up, scoring single runs in the second, fourth and sixth innings to tie the game at 3. Nolan Wosman homered in the second, Sebastian Martinez reached on a run-scoring error in the fourth, and Lance Logsdon doubled home Gino D’Alessio in the sixth.

Quincy took the lead in the seventh as Luke Napleton’s double brought home Joe Roscetti.

That finally chased UIndy starter Brandon DeWitt, who allowed four runs and seven hits over seven innings with nine strikeouts and one walk. DeWitt beat Quincy 3-0 during the regular season, limiting the Hawks to one hit over four innings in that game.

“I thought we’d get to him a little sooner, and we never did,” Schissel said. “But we battled. We competed. It’s been that way all year. We’ve played a lot of close games. We’ve won some. We’ve lost some. That set us up for games like this.”

Senior right-hander Alex Pribyl worked two scoreless innings of relief, working around bases-loaded jams in both innings. Then he handed the game over to Stephens, who dominated the three batters he faced.

“Sam was lights out,” Schissel said.

And he pitched with supreme confidence despite feeling the nervousness of everyone else in the previous innings.

“I was on pins and needles for a while,” Stephens said. “Sitting there watching the seventh and eighth innings, I was more nervous than anybody in that park.”