Payson Seymour splits games at softball slam, while Illini West suffers pair of setbacks

QUINCY — Four teams provided a day full of action at Saturday’s Quincy Notre Dame Softball Slam at The Backyard.

The finale provided plenty of drama with QND squeaking out a 1-0 victory over Hardin Calhoun. Here is a recap of the three games preceding that showdown:

Archer’s timely hits give Indians lift

Corin Robinson gave Illini West a 1-0 lead with an RBI double three pitches into the first game of the day, but Payson Seymour scored five unanswered runs — three of which were driven in by Ella Archer — to win 5-2.

Archer tied the game at 1 with a one-out single in the first and extended the Indians’ lead to 5-1 with a two-run single in the fourth. Megan Kirby had an RBI double in the third, and Grace Klitz provided an RBI groundout two batters later. The Chargers got a run back with a two-out single by Kate DeSotel with two outs in the top of the seventh, but DeSotel got caught stealing second to end the game.

Bryn Buescher surrendered nine hits and struck out just one batter, but she only walked one and threw 60 of her 79 pitches for strikes. 

“Bryn had a rough start to begin and fought back,” Indians coach Joe Fessler said. “She started keeping the ball low and got a lot of soft contact, then the offense came alive. The past couple games, it’s taken us a couple innings, but we finally figure it out. That was one of those games.”

The Chargers stranded the bases loaded in the second and fourth innings and left runners on first and second in the fifth.

“So far this year, that’s where we’re at,” Chargers coach Dennis Dooley said. “We’re knocking on the door, but we never get that key hit. We’ve got to generate runs.”

Missed opportunities cost Chargers

Illini West pulled even with Hardin Calhoun at 3 in the top of the fourth inning of the second game, but the Warriors plated four runs in the bottom of the inning and added another in the fifth for an 8-3 victory before the game reached the time limit.

The Chargers again stranded the bases full in the top of the fourth. After Ella Shutwell drew a bases loaded walk to tie the game, Robinson popped out to pitcher Layla Longnecker to end the inning.

The first five Warriors reached base in the bottom half, and Hardin Calhoun sent eight batters to the plate in their four-run inning. The Chargers got runners to second and third with one out in the top of the fifth, but a Raina Flynn pop out and Hayden Wibbell groundout ended the threat.

“We’re knocking on the door,” Dooley said. “We just need to kick it open and start getting some runs in there.”

Raiders overwhelm Indians with early outburst

In the game before its battle with Hardin Calhoun, QND wasted no time in putting away Payson Seymour. The Raiders scored all 12 of their runs in the first two innings and finished off a 12-1 victory in four innings.

The Raiders sent 11 batters to the plate in scoring seven runs in the first and another eight batters in a five-run second. Six different players had hits, and every starter drove in or scored a run.