Walker bounces back from disaster in regional to quiet powerful Illinois-Springfield lineup

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Spencer Walker and Matt Schissel learned the best way to deal with last week’s disastrous ninth inning was to ignore it.

Walker, a senior right-handed pitcher from Mapleton, kept one of NCAA Division II’s most prolific offenses in check for seven innings on Friday during the Quincy University baseball team’s 20-6 victory over Illinois-Springfield in the first game of a three-game series in the NCAA Division II Super Regional.

The victory is Walker’s 10th this season. He’s tied for second in school history for pitching victories in a season with Brandon DeJaynes (2003) and Brad Stone (2006). Larry Franzoi holds the school record with 11 victories during the 1975 season.

Eight days earlier, however, the Hawks held a 5-1 lead entering the ninth inning of their opening game against Northwood (Mich.) in the NCAA Midwest Regional. Walker had limited the Timberwolves to four hits through eight innings, but Northwood’s Rhett Evans and Myles Beale hit back-to-back homers on the first three pitches of the ninth inning.

Most victories in single season at Quincy University

Schissel, the Hawks’ first-year coach, stuck with Walker instead of going to the bullpen. A groundout, a single and fly out followed, leaving Walker one out from finishing the game. However, the Timberwolves’ David Jeffers jacked a two-run home run to left field to tie the game. QU eventually lost 10-5 in 12 innings.

The Hawks rebounded to win their next three games and the regional championship, giving Walker a shot at redemption against the Prairie Stars.

“I came out here with a little more, well, I don’t want to say a chip on my shoulder, but I treated it as another day,” Walker said. “I flushed that game. It is what it is. I’ve never done that before in my life. So I just flushed it and said, hey, it’s a new day. Go out there and do your thing. I was going to put it all out there on the field, and I tried my best today.”

Asked if he talked with Walker about the game during the past week, Schissel replied, “Not at all. It’s in the past. It was my mistake. We had a closer ready I screwed it up.”

The Hawks needed no closer Friday, thanks to a 20-run outburst. Yet Walker knew the Prairie Stars, who had nine .300-or-better hitters in the lineup and averaged 10.4 runs per game this season, would put up a fight.

He appreciated the five-run first inning by QU, followed by a four-run third inning.

“They’re a really good hitting team,” Walker said. “I had the five runs right at the start, but I was like, that’s probably not going to be enough. If you look at their season, they’ve basically (beaten) every team out there (by the 10-run rule), so I knew it was still going to be a dogfight.

“(The Hawks) made me feel a little more comfortable that we were actually hitting the ball and getting some runs. If worse comes to worst, I knew they still had my back. Once we got that nine-run lead (11-2 after three innings), that was it. It felt really good. I just went out there and did my thing.”

Walker allowed two runs on three hits in the bottom of the second, then gave up just five hits over the next five innings. He struck out six and gave way to Joe Byers for the final two innings. It was the fifth consecutive start during which Walker made it through at least seven innings.

“As long as I have this job, the job for starters is to give us a chance, and he did,” Schissel said of Walker. “He’s done that all year. All of our staff has done a really good job with that. Obviously, the game gets out of hand, and it’s tough to pitch during a blowout, but he did a good job. 

“Now, if you wanted to tell me he would hit six batters today, I would have laughed at you and said, ‘You’re lying to me.’”

Actually, Walker only hit four Prairie Stars, and Byers hit one more.

“My changeup worked, but as you can tell, I also hit four guys,” he said. “It was coming out of my hands, just not staying closed enough. But the changeup worked really, really well today. They were kind of on my curveball, so I had to switch it up a little bit and just keep them off balance.”

“Honestly, he didn’t have his best stuff,” junior first baseman Lance Logsdon said. “But he went out there and battled, and that’s what we needed. He ate up innings for us and got it to our bullpen.”

Walker’s job is done for the weekend. All he will do Saturday is watch and cheer as the Hawks try to win one out of two games against the Prairie Stars to earn a bid to play in the NCAA Division II World Series, which starts June 4 in Cary, N.C.

“I’m just going to be the biggest supporter here in the dugout,” he said. “That’s all I can do now.”

He did plenty on Friday.