20/20 vision: Raiders win 11th straight game to reach 20-victory plateau

MOUNT STERLING, Ill. — The ability to produce in every spot in the order is what has made the Quincy Notre Dame baseball team a 20-win season.

A never-say-die attitude has done the same for Brown County.

Monday, glimpses of both were evident.

The Raiders sent 11 batters to the plate in the second inning, scoring six runs and knocking Hornets starter Gabe Blakeley out of the game. Then, on the verge of having the 10-run rule invoked, the Hornets’ offense showed some life and scratched across three runs in the fifth and sixth innings combined.

Ben Kasparie’s two-run single in the top of the seventh negated that, allowing the Raiders to post a 12-3 victory.

The Raiders improved to 20-2 with their 11th straight victory, while the Hornets fell to 20-2 as their 11-game win streak was snapped.

Scoreless going to the top of the second after both teams stranded a runner on base in the first inning, QND rapped doubles in three of the first four at-bats and went ahead 2-0 on Michael Stupavsky’s RBI single. A Kasparie groundout got another run home, a Dalton Miller double plated two runs and Alex Connoyer capped a six-run frame with an RBI single.

Kasparie stroked an RBI triple to center field in the third and Tucker Tollerton had an RBI single as the Raiders’ lead grew to 9-0. Harry Oden scored on a wild pitch in the fourth inning to make it 10-0.

Brown County put together a rally in the fifth when a one-out walk and a single resulted in both runners ending up in scoring position. An infield with two outs kept the inning alive and allowed both runs to score. The Hornets tacked on a run in the sixth as Sam Carr doubled, took third on a groundout and scored on an error.

Tucker Tollerton, who came on in relief of Tyler Dance in the sixth, worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning to end the game.

Dance went five innings, allowing two unearned runs and two hits, while striking out six and walking one. Blakeley allowed eight earned runs and 11 hits in 2 ⅓ innings with one strikeout and one walk in suffering the loss.

QND finished with 14 hits, getting two hits apiece from six guys in the lineup.