Kirn dials in, mows down Tritons with career-high 13 Ks as No. 13 Hawks reach 30-victory plateau

ST. LOUIS — Maybe Griffin Kirn should have known something special lied ahead.

“Typically, it seems the better games a pitcher pitches their catch is bad or their bullpen is bad,” the Quincy University left-handed pitcher said. “For me, my catch was the worst game of catch I’ve had in a long time.”

Prior to the first game of Saturday’s Great Lakes Valley Conference baseball doubleheader at Missouri-St. Louis, Kirn began warming up with catcher Luke Napleton on a windy, cold morning at the UMSL field. Things just didn’t go right.

“I kept underthrowing him,” Kirn said. “Then he would underthrow me because the wind was at my back and I would miss the ball. I was like, ‘Oh, no, it’s just going to be one of these days.’”

Steadily that changed.

“My bullpen turned out to be pretty good,” Kirn said. “Then I came in the game and executed almost every pitch.”

It made him practically unhittable.

The Quincy Notre Dame graduate struck out the side in the bottom of the first inning, carried a perfect game into the sixth inning and fashioned a one-hitter with a career-high 13 strikeouts as the 13th-ranked Hawks won 6-1 to run their win streak to 10 games.

It also was the Hawks’ 30th victory of the season, giving them 30 or more victories in eight of the last nine full seasons.

A 9-8 loss in the nightcap when the Tritons rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh forced the Hawks to split the twinbill, but they can win the series if they win the finale at noon Sunday.

“We were going to drop one game eventually,” QU coach Matt Schissel said with his team sitting at 30-9 overall and 18-5 and in first place in the GLVC. “Do I want to drop Game 3 to UMSL? No, but it was bound to happen. We just need to bounce right back. Winning the series is the important part.”

Kirn, who improved to 5-1, threw 94 pitches with 61 for strikes, setting the tone in the first inning when 11 of his 12 pitches were strikes.

“Striking out the 1-2-3 batters tells you this is going to be fun,” Kirn said. “If you can do it to the first three batters, you can do it to anyone else on their team.”

And he did. Kirn struck out two in the second inning, struck out the side in the fourth despite the first two hitters each fouling off three pitches, and struck out the final two batters in the fifth. 

“After the second inning, I was in the dugout and I thought I hadn’t given up a hit,” Kirn said. “After the third inning, I knew I was doing my thing.”

His run at a perfect game ended in the sixth when UMSL pinch-hitter Jerad Byrant fouled off back-to-back two-strike pitches and then was hit on the back foot with a slider.

“I was like, ‘Dang it, there it goes,’” Kirn said. “Then I hear Spencer (Walker) in the dugout going, ‘Noooo!’”

A fielder’s choice, a stolen base and a strikeout followed before Kameron Laskowski singled to right field to break up the no-hitter and the shutout as he drove in Bryant. Kirn ended the inning with a three-pitch strikeout and then worked a perfect ninth inning.

“Nothing changed after the baserunner and after I let up the run,” Kirn said. “I was still getting first-pitch strikes and giving our team a chance to win.”

The 13 strikeouts topped the 11 strikeouts he had against Missouri Western in his first start of the 2022 season, and it’s the third double-digit strikeout performance of his career. 

“His strikeout numbers are up this season,” said Schissel, noting Kirn. “Being able to throw the fastball in and out and being able to control the breaking ball has been his bread and butter this year.”

This also was Kirn’s first outing this season without allowing a walk and the fourth such outing of his career.

“What I liked the most was no walks,” Kirn said.

Pitching with a lead certainly helps in that regard.

The Hawks scored three times in the first inning with Dustin Dupont delivering a two-run single, added a run in the second on Austin Simpson’s RBI groundout and tacked on two more in the third with Brock Boynton delivering a run-scoring sacrifice fly.

That was more than enough for Kirn. In the nightcap, the Hawks seemingly did the same thing.

A five-run fourth inning highlighted by RBI singles by Boynton and Lance Logsdon erased a two-run deficit, and Quincy extended the lead to 8-5 with a Joe Huffman RBI single in the fifth and Gino D’Alessio’s two-run single in the seventh.

The lead wasn’t safe as UMSL rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh against two relievers, capitalizing on three errors, a walk, a wild pitch and a passed ball.

Zach Parks went 4 for 5 for Quincy, while D’Alessio went 3 for 5 and Dupont, Huffman and Boyton each had two hits.