Hawks turn series finale into slugfest to finish off Cardinals and keep momentum rolling

QUINCY — The scene was all too familiar. The reaction was decidedly different.

That enabled the Quincy University baseball team to finish the weekend with a flourish.

Saginaw Valley State’s Austin Schweiger belted a three-run home run in the top of the first inning Sunday — the Cardinals’ Hayden Jatczak did the same thing Saturday — to force the Hawks into catch-up mode before coming to bat.

But instead of allowing the Cardinals to pile on runs, the Hawks’ pitching staff buckled down, the offense seized the lead in the second inning and Quincy rolled to a 16-6 victory at QU Stadium to take three of four games in the non-conference series.

“We know what type of team they are,” QU sophomore center fielder Brock Boynton said. “If we were going to let them stick around and play the small ball, that’s their style of play and it could be bad. But we knew if we tacked on the runs and kept the pressure on them, they can’t play that style.

“We had to take them out of their game and play our game. And our game is a lot more fun than their game is.”

The Hawks enjoyed every at-bat.

The second inning began with Sebastian Martinez, Zach Parks and Joe Roscetti hitting back-to-back-to-back singles that produced the first run. A sacrifice bunt and a walk loaded the bases, and after an infield popout, Gino D’Alessio blasted a grand slam to right field for a 5-3 lead.

Quincy scored twice more in the third with Martinez leading off with a triple and scoring on Parks’ groundout. Boynton blasted a solo home run one out later.

“We were head-hunting today,” Boynton said. “All week long, we were barreling balls up. Today, they were finding holes and they were sitting down. Hitting is contagious, and when everyone is doing it, it’s kind of fun.”

Luke Napleton led off the sixth with a home run, and the Hawks scored five times in the seventh on two bases-loaded walks, a wild pitch, a sacrifice fly and an RBI groundout.

Boynton put the cap on the slugfest with a two-run home run in the eighth inning. It was the first multi-homer game of his career.

Napleton, Roscetti and Boynton each finished with three hits, while every starter had at least one hit in the 17-hit attack.

“We had guys doing their jobs up and down the lineup,” QU coach Matt Schissel said. “We dropped down a couple bunts. We had good opposite field approaches when we needed to in order to move guys. I think baserunning has been good for us all year. We’ve stayed aggressive.”

Unlike Saturday, when the Cardinals piled up 21 hits in their lone victory in the series, the Hawks shut them down after the tough first inning. Left-handed starter Mike McDonough worked four innings, giving up four runs and five hits.

He gave way to right-hander Alex Pribyl, who struck out two and allowed one earned run and one hit over two innings. Left-hander Sam Stephens worked the final three innings, striking out five and allowing just two hits to earn the victory.

“We’ve been punched in the face a lot, some of our own doing, some of the other team’s doing,” Schissel said. “Every day, we just come back and fight again. I thought today summed up our whole season.”

The Hawks (27-19) have won eight of their last nine games heading into the final series of the regular season when they play host to Missouri S&T beginning Friday.

“We want to have momentum going into that weekend,” Boynton said. “We want to get our first sweep of the year. It would be huge to carry that momentum into the conference tournament. Setting the tone, staying hot and keeping the wheels turning.”