Ortiz’s walk-off home run could be tide-turning moment Hawks need to change their season

QUINCY — Mark the date now. April 5, 2024. That’ll be the day the Quincy University baseball team points to as the turning point in its season.

A bulldogged effort and a momentous swing made it so.

Griffin Kirn’s complete game gave the Hawks a chance in the bottom of the ninth to rally from a one-run deficit, and JD Ortiz blasted a three-run, walk-off home run to right field to give Quincy a 4-2 victory over Lewis in the opening game of its Great Lakes Valley Conference series at QU Stadium.

“Hopefully that is the turn that we need,” QU coach Matt Schissel said. “Hopefully that kind of changes the mindset for the rest of the year and certainly the rest of the weekend.”

The Hawks (11-18, 8-9 GLVC) had gone 4-8 in their last three GLVC series combined, dropping three of the four games last weekend at Drury. 

The inability to rally has been an issue. Quincy has stranded 19 total runners on base in its final at-bat in 12 of its losses.

“We always have runners on base in the ninth,” Schissel said. “The vibe is always pretty good. It’s never like the dugout is down and out or the team is down and out. It was like, ‘Hey, we can do this.’ So many times this year, we’ve been chasing one or two runs and we haven’t gotten them.”

Trailing 2-1 heading to the bottom of the ninth, QU’s Cole Erickson singled with one out. A groundout by Austin Simpson moved pinch-runner Ben Dahlof to second base, and Joe Huffman reached on an error, putting runners at the corners.

The Flyers went to their bullpen with Ortiz coming to the plate, and reliever Zach Maslona worked a 2-2 count before Ortiz jumped on a fastball and drove a deep home run down the right-field line to walk off with the victory.

“Huge hit,” Schissel said.

Still being in the game came down to Kirn being bulldogged. The junior left-hander allowed single runs in the third and sixth innings, but refused to give up the ball in the late innings.

He worked around a two-out single in the seventh as catcher Dustin DuPoint threw out Lewis’ George Bilecki trying to steal. In the eighth, Kirn struck out back-to-back batters after allowing a one-out single. In the ninth, Kirn stranded a runner at third base by getting a pair of groundouts.

“He came in fired up after the seventh and after the eighth,” Schissel said. “It was kind of a no-brainer. He wanted the ball. Sometimes when the guy wants the ball, you have to give it to him.

“It was his game to win or lose and we stepped up and won it for him in the ninth.”

Kirn allowed two runs on nine hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. Evan Davis had two of the Hawks’ eight hits with Huffman doubling and Erickson driving in the first run with a sacrifice fly in the first inning.