Resilient Blue Devils rally to beat Rockets and take winning record into WB6 opener at Sterling

QUINCY — The resiliency the Quincy High School softball team was forced to demonstrate inning after inning Wednesday should be the attribute that gives the Blue Devils the chance to chase victories all season.

Despite allowing five runs in the first inning and trailing as they came to bat in five of the first six innings, the Blue Devils found a way to rally and put up a zero defensively in the seventh inning to snare a 16-13 victory over Rushville-Industry at the QHS field.

Quincy is 2-1 as it heads into Thursday’s Western Big 6 Conference opener at Sterling.

The Rockets scored four of their five first-inning runs with two outs, capitalizing on four walks and two errors. However, the Blue Devils responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame with Ivy Winter leading off with a single and scoring on Kate Mettemeyer’s single. Paige Kurfman’s sacrifice fly plated the other run.

A five-run second inning followed for the Blue Devils, who got an RBI single from Mettemeyer and a two-run single from Avery Hlubek and tied the game at 7 on Aurora Allison’s RBI single.

A pair of two-out runs in the third enabled Rushville to regain the lead, but Quincy scored four times in the fourth as Ariana Adorno tied the game with an RBI double and Aryauna Allen followed with a two-run single.

The teams traded runs in the fifth before the Rockets took the lead in the sixth, scoring three runs with two outs, highlighted by a two-run double by Devin Vogler.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Blue Devils’ real resiliency showed. Mettemeyer and Hlubek walked leading off, and a passed ball allowed courtesy runner Avery Niewohner to score the tying run. Hlubek scored the go-ahead run on Kurfman’s groundout and Adorno’s second double of the game capped the four-run rally for a 16-13 lead.

A two-out single by Brynna Shaw in the seventh was all the Rockets could muster before Kate Vogler flew out to left field to end the game.

Allison finished 4 for 5 with three runs scored, while Winter and Hlubek each went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and Adorno went 3 for 5 with two doubles and two RBIs. Eight of the Blue Devils’ nine starters had at least one hit as they collected 20 base knocks overall.

Kayden Smith earned the victory, allowing four runs and four walks over four innings of relief with three strikeouts.