Walker grinds through hot, humid conditions to give Hawks another sterling effort

ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Anything from a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call to Thursday’s rising temperatures could have been what made Spencer Walker feel a little out of sorts.

“Something felt off mindset-wise,” the Quincy University right-handed pitcher said. “It just felt a little different. I wasn’t like my usual self.”

No one outside the Hawks’ dugout would have noticed.

Walker held Lindenwood scoreless the first five innings and struck out nine over seven innings, guiding QU to a 12-3 victory in the opening round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament at the Lou Brock Sports Complex.

“He’s so good he’s able to do that when his routine gets messed up or something happens,” QU catcher Luke Napleton said. “He’s good enough where he can roll out of bed and give us seven strong innings.”

Each inning, especially with runners on base, Walker proved he could buckle down as needed.

A single and a hit batter put two Lindenwood runners on base with one out in the top of the third. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, but Walker struck out the next hitters to escape the inning unscathed. In the fourth, the Lions used a leadoff double and a two-out single to put runners at the corners, but Walker struck out the next batter to end the threat.

“I was walking off the field and I was like, ‘OK, this is what we do. On to the next inning,’” Walker said. “I was just preparing for the next inning.”

He did that through seven innings, improving to 9-1 and moving into a tie for third on QU’s single-season victory list.

“I just love catching him,” Napleton said. “He fills up the zone. He trusts the guys behind him to make plays. He’s going to come up big for us and always has.”

He did so despite the heat and humidity.

“There were multiple curveballs that were just slipping out of my hands,” Walker said.

Wiping the sweat off his hands on his pant leg or continually using the rosin bag didn’t help much.

“At the beginning of the inning, you’d get that humidity and almost like that stickiness of the ball,” Walker said. “But as the inning progressed and you’re out there in the sun and the heat, my fingers started getting sweaty and slick. I put rosin on it, but sometimes it almost made it worse.

“So I just had to kind of grind through it and make an adjustment and figure something out.”

As he’s done all season, Walker made the right adjustments.

“He did what Spencer Walker does every week,” QU coach Matt Schissel said. “He attacked the strike zone and kept them off balance. He was going to do whatever it takes to win.”