Raiders play home run derby in final regular season game, run win streak to 20 straight

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — Just in case anyone in the Class 2A Pleasant Plains Sectional showed up Saturday at Jacksonville Routt to get a peek at what the Quincy Notre Dame baseball team is capable of doing, the Raiders provided plenty of food for thought.

Namely, the Raiders made them ask: How do you stop this lineup?

QND slugged five home runs, including three from the bottom third of the order, in a 12-2 victory to cap the regular season and run its win streak to 20 consecutive games.

The Raiders (29-2) will face either Petersburg PORTA or Athens at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinals of the Class 2A QND Regional at Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield. The regional championship will be at 11 a.m. next Saturday.

QND’s powerful bats made a one-run deficit disappear in a blink.

The Rockets used a two-out triple and a single to plate the game’s first run in the bottom of the first inning. In the top of the second, Jake Schisler rattled a two-out single and Brady Kindhart followed with a two-run home run to left field.

In the third, Dalton Miller doubled QND’s run output as he belted a two-run home run to left field. A two-out RBI single by Schisler plated another run, and Kindhart again followed with a two-run home run, jacking another shot to left field for a 7-1 advantage.

Miller’s RBI double in the fourth was followed by Alex Connoyer hitting a three-run home run to left field. In the fifth, Michael Stupavsky made it a 10-run lead with a solo home run.

Miller, Connoyer, Schisler, Kindhart and Stupavsky each had two hits apiece.

Schisler struck out two in the first two innings, and Tyler Dance struck out five over the final three innings as they combined to limit Routt to four hits.