Take it to the limit: Wiewel holds Blue Devils at bay as Raiders win latest crosstown showdown

QUINCY — Abram Wiewel understands the need for a pitch count, but it doesn’t dampen the disappointment of being pulled one out away from a complete game.

“I wanted to finish it really bad,” said Wiewel, the Quincy Notre Dame junior right-hander who left Tuesday’s game against the Quincy High School baseball team with a four-run lead and two outs in the seventh inning, having thrown 105 pitches.

“I was at my pitch limit, and I’d rather be taken out there then push it too far and get hurt and not be able to pitch later on in the season and in the summer.”

The Raiders wouldn’t want that either.

Wiewel handcuffed the Blue Devils to the tune of four hits allowed, nine strikeouts and one unearned run, leading the Raiders to a 5-1 victory at the QHS field.

“I felt like I commanded my breaking ball and fastball pretty well,” Wiewel said. “I had the defense make some plays behind me, and it all worked out.”

Even the bullpen made quick work of things.

Sophomore right-hander Gavin Doellman, who starts in center field, relieved Wiewel with runners at the corners after QHS pinch-hitter Garrett Smith led off the seventh with a walk and went to third on Kyle Taylor’s two-out single.

Doellman needed just one pitch to end the game, getting the Blue Devils’ Tykell Hammers to fly out to left fielder Cale Linenfelser.

“It’s a big game,” Wiewel said. “This puts us right at .500, and that’s something we can start building on.”

It also evened the season series. The Blue Devils (9-16) picked up a 3-1 victory over the Raiders (11-11) in Springfield on March 16, and they will play the rubber match next Monday at Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield.

It will pit two teams going in diverging directions.

The Blue Devils have lost eight of their last nine games and scored three or fewer runs in seven of those losses. Taylor had two of QHS’s four hits, and only one of the 21 outs came on a ball to the outfield. Afterward, the Blue Devils discussed at length what needs to change to get the offense jumpstarted.

“We just have to find a way to get something started,” said QHS’s Brady Lowe, who singled in the fourth and walked in the sixth.

Meanwhile, the Raiders have won five of their last six games and scored four or more runs in each of those victories. It’s a stark contrast to the start of the season when they lost five of their first six games, scoring six total runs in those five setbacks.

“As a team we kind of struggled at the beginning of the season getting runs across,” Wiewel said. “So to come out there and get some big hits and make some things happen is definitely important I guess you could say.”

In the third inning, QND’s Nick Spears led off with a single and Ethan Rose and Linenfelser followed with walks. Logan Sutton and Oliver Triplett both singled to left field, driving in the first two runs of the frame. Wiewel walked with the bases loaded to plate another run, and Sutton scored with two outs on a wild pitch.

“We’ve been working in practice on taking the ball the other way and not taking pitches in the zone but attacking them,” Wiewel said. “It’s really starting to pay off.”

Lowe, who retired the first six batters he faced, threw 34 pitches in the third inning alone.

“I just kind of lost it there,” said Lowe, who worked around allowing a walk and a single to start the fourth without allowing a run in the inning and was pulled with one out in the fifth.

The Blue Devils got a run in the bottom of the fifth on Taylor’s two-out double, which plated James Day, who led off by reaching on an error. But the Raiders came back in the sixth and got the run back as Evan Kenning draw a bases-loaded walk against Day.