Fay delivers on cue, blasts three-run homer to send Gems into conference title game

QUINCY — Brad Gyorkos called it.

With the Quincy Gems’ Logan Voth on third base and Hayden Moore on second with one out in the sixth inning Sunday night, the Normal CornBelters summoned left-hander Ryan Weaver from the bullpen before Andrew Fay came to the plate.

While Weaver warmed up, Voth turned to Gyorkos, the Gems’ manager and third-base coach, and said he felt Fay would hit a line drive to right field to give the Gems the lead.

Gyorkos felt something bigger was coming.

“He says, ‘I think he’s going to hit a bomb,’” Voth said. “And then he does, and I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ He called it.”

Fay, the center fielder who plays for Gyorkos at Culver-Stockton College, greeted Weaver by driving a three-run home run to right-center field, giving the Gems an insurmountable lead in a 6-3 victory at QU Stadium in the Prospect League’s Great River Division playoff game.

The Gems, who won the Great River Division in the first half of the season, advance to face the Alton River Dragons in the Western Conference title game at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday at Lloyd Hopkins Field in Alton.

The Gems went 3-4 against the River Dragons in the regular season, losing the last three meetings, two of which were at Alton. However, the Gems have won four of their last five games and will have right-hander Bennett Stice on the hill.

Stice, a Palmyra, Mo., product who plays for Lindenwood University, is 4-4 in 10 starts with a 6.71 ERA.

“We know Alton likes to play a lot of small ball,” said Voth, the Mendon Unity product who plays infield for Quincy University. “We’ll just try to keep the same strategy at the plate. It seems like the last four games, once we get hot, it turns into a big inning as one guy gets a hit, then the next, then the next. We just keep the line moving.

“That’s something we need to keep doing.”

The Gems grabbed the lead in the second when Lucas Loos, the Payson Seymour product who played the past two years at John Wood Community College, jacked a solo home run to left field. The CornBelters answered with a run in the third and two more in the fourth.

Jayden Shafer’s RBI single in the bottom of the fourth got the Gems within a run, and he doubled with one out in the sixth. Voth followed with an RBI single to center field to tie the game.

“He started me off with two curveballs, and something inside me told me he was going to throw another one,” Voth said. “I was kind of mad because it would have been a ball, but I saw it right out of his hand. I’m just glad I hit it off the end of the bat instead of the barrel.”

Moore singled to center and took second when the throw went to third after Voth made it there safely.

Fay followed with his second home run of the season and first since June 8.

It ignited a celebration in the dugout and the stands.

“The past few days have been fun,” Voth said.

Luc Fladda and Philip Reinhardt made sure the lead didn’t vanish.

Fladda, the left-hander from the University of Oklahoma, struck out six and walked none over eight innings. He allowed just three hits and two earned runs, and retired the final 13 batters he faced. Reinhardt, the left-hander from Maryville University, allowed a walk and a single to open the ninth inning, but retired the final three batters he faced to finish the save.