‘That’s just the greatest feeling ever’: DuPont’s walk-off home run lifts Hawks in extra innings

MARION, Ill. — Dustin DuPont took off on a dead sprint toward first base, unsure where the ball he uncorked to right field would actually land.

“It hit the back of the bullpen wall, but I thought it hit the fence,” the Quincy University catcher said. “I kind of started taking off a little more then, but I saw all the guys jumping up and down in the bullpen. That’s when I finally knew it was gone.”

Missouri-St. Louis’ Kameron Laskowski gave it away, too.

“I didn’t think it was gone until I saw the right fielder throw his glove,” DuPont said. “Another moment where I knew.”

At that point, the Hawks were headed to the second round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament. DuPont led off the bottom of the 10th inning Wednesday by hammering the second pitch from Tritons reliever Brady Krile into the right-field bullpen for a walk-off 5-4 victory in the opener at Mtn. Dew Park.

His home run trot stayed a sprint until he reached home plate, where the Hawks mobbed the first-team All-GLVC utility player.

“That’s definitely the best feeling when you’re able to give your team a win,” DuPont said. “That’s just the greatest feeling ever.”

It took some moxie, some patience and some toughness to get it done.

Left-handed ace Griffin Kirn allowed two unearned runs with 10 strikeouts over 6 ⅓ innings and left with the game tied at 2. The Triton scored twice in the eighth, but a DuPont RBI single and a JD Ortiz bases-loaded walk allowed the Hawks to pull even at 4 heading to the ninth.

After QU reliever Roman Harrison struck out the leadoff hitter, a lightning delay was called. 

The teams were taken to the locker rooms and the stands cleared for what turned out to be nearly a 90-minute delay. When play resumed, the left-handed Harrison went back to the mound and got a lineout and a groundout to end the frame.

“I never planned on not coming back out,” Harrison said. “I expected to get the ball when the game started back up.”

The Hawks had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth when right fielder Jake Vitale was hit by a pitch and Adam Lewis dropped down a sacrifice bunt to get Vitale into scoring position. Brock Boynton walked, but David Broughton hit into a double play to end the threat.

“That is just baseball,” DuPont said. “You’re not going to succeed every time you go up to the plate. (Broughton) hit the ball hard, which is all you;re trying to do when you’re up at the plate. He didn’t find the hole, but we were confident we were going to get another chance and win the game.”

Harrison worked around hitting a batter with two outs in the 10th to get out of the inning unscathed and bring DuPont to the plate. He swung at a fastball up in the zone on the first pitch.

“The umpire told me it was a ball,” DuPont said.

The next pitch was another fastball up in the zone. It became his 17th home run of the season.

“I was able to get around on it and drive it,” DuPont said.

With it, the Hawks maintain their hope of repeating of GLVC champions, but that pursuit won’t continue until Friday. Because of more weather blowing across southern Illinois, the rest of the day’s schedule was postponed.

The GLVC decided to play the three remaining first-round games Thursday and pick up the second round on Saturday. So the Hawks (26-25) likely won’t play again until 7:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of the Indianapolis-Lewis game.

“In tournament time, there is no easy way to win a game and you have to take them any way you can get them,” QU coach Matt Schissel said. “We know we’re always in the game. The ups and downs aren’t as big as they once were for this group. That’s what leads to winning in tournament time.”