‘No one quit’: QND softball team showcases resiliency before comeback ends in super-sectional loss

DECATUR, Ill. — The cardiac queens were at it agaIn.

Facing a four-run deficit heading to the bottom of the fifth inning — the second time the Quincy Notre Dame softball team had trailed this deep in a game this postseason and the third straight game in which late-inning runs were needed to advance — the Raiders sure enough rallied.

Alyssa Ley’s bases-clearing double in the fifth made it a one-run game, and QND was able to get two runners on base with one out in the seventh inning of Monday’s Class 2A Decatur Super-Sectional against Effingham St. Anthony.

The comeback and the season ended there. The Bulldogs turned a double play to finish off a 7-6 victory at Millikin University’s Workman Family Softball Field and advance to the Class 2A state final four, sending the Raiders home after a 24-5 season.

“I’m so insanely proud of this team,” QND senior first baseman Addi Zanger said. “No one quit.”

The Raiders truly believed a seventh-inning rally was possible.

“We all had our heads held high coming up to the plate and we put the ball in play,” senior shortstop Abbey Schreacke said. “It’s just unfortunate.”

Schreacke breathed a deep sigh at that moment.

“That’s how life works,” she said. “That’s how sports works.”

This time, the Raiders were in rally mode from the start.

The Bulldogs’ Cameron Rios led off with a triple, which was ripped just inside the first base bag and into the right-field corner. She scored on Ady Rios’ single, and Addie Wernsing followed with a two-run home run to left field.

The Raiders were down three runs before an out was made.

“I didn’t know what we’d have after it was 3-0 and especially after everything they’ve been through the last 48 hours,” QND coach Eric Orne said. “You saw a lot of resiliency. They said, ‘Let’s go. We’re not done.’ We knew it was going to be a battle.”

Having endured a heartbreaking 48 hours with the loss of classmate Tucker Tollerton, the starting center fielder on the QND baseball team who was tragically killed Saturday night in a single-vehicle accident, the emotion necessary to rally already could have been spent.

It wasn’t.

“It would have been really easy to just fold over with everything that has happened when we went down 3-0 in the first inning,” Zanger said. “We came back and restarted the game essentially. It’s what we had to do.”

Bunte was hit by a pitch leading off the bottom of the first, and Schreacke singled to left field. Brooke Boden’s grounder plated one run, and an error on Ley’s grounder allowed two more runs to score to tie the game.

“We were trying to focus in and keep everything on our mind,” Schreacke said. “We battled. Every time they put up some numbers, we put up some numbers, too. It just wasn’t enough today.”

St. Anthony’s Abbie Hatton doubled with one out in the second, Stacie Vonderheide followed with a triple and Cameron Rios hit a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3. The Bulldogs extended the lead in the top of the fifth as Cameron Rios singled, Ady Rios doubled and Wernsing singled to make it 7-3.

It proved to be just enough.

The top three in the St. Anthony lineup went 6 for 9 with five runs scored and six RBIs. 

“They’re true softball players,” Orne said. “You can tell they play at a high level.”

QND sophomore left-hander Caitlin Bunte allowed only two other hits as she struck out five and walked none. The Raiders were limited to four hits by the Bulldogs’ Lucy Fearday, who struck out six and walked four.

Those walks proved critical.

In the fifth, Mackenzie Flachs walked, Bunte reached on an error and Schreacke walked to load the bases with no outs. After a strikeout, Ley lined a double into the right-center field gap to clear the bases and make it a one-run ballgame.

“I was just going up there just looking to make something happen for the team,” Ley said.

In the seventh, Scheacke led with a walk and Ley smashed a one-out infield single, but the rally ended there as Logan Pieper hit into a game-ending double play.

“Time and time again, we didn’t give away at-bats,” Orne said. “We played until the last out.”