Together until the end: Raiders finish mission to play on season’s final day, bring home Class 2A third-place trophy

PEORIA, Ill. — Tyler Dance shook his head, almost in disbelief.

Then he smiled, knowing you have to believe in fate.

“No. 5,” Dance said. “It keeps coming up.”

In the final game of this historic, record-setting season — one that should land the Quincy Notre Dame baseball team in the school’s Hall of Fame some day — the final margin of victory was five. That’s the number Tucker Tollerton wore before his tragic death, the number ironed on the left sleeve of every QND jersey, and the number involved with every critical moment the past three games.

So in the wake of Saturday’s 7-2 victory over DePaul College Prep in the Class 2A third-place game at Dozer Park, the Raiders all took note of that margin of victory.

“He’s always with us,” Dance, the senior right-hander, said of Tollerton, the senior center fielder killed in an auto accident one week ago. “No matter what time of day, he’s going to be with us, cheering us on and supporting us.”

If the run differential wasn’t enough to suggest fate intervened, maybe having the No. 5 hitter in the QND lineup drive in the go-ahead and eventual winning run does.

That came in the sixth inning with the game tied at 2.

Senior third baseman Brady Kindhart led off with a double to left-center field, and senior catcher Michael Stupavsky, who moved to the No. 5 spot as part of a lineup shuffle following Tollerton’s death, followed with a double to left-center to drive in pinch-runner Denver Bryan and make it 3-2.

“We really put some good at-bats together today,” said Stupavsky, who went 4 for 9 hitting in the No. 5 spot. “We had a great day at the plate. We were seeing the ball well. (Friday), we struggled a little bit more, but today we had a great day.”

The Raiders finished it by knocking the ball around the park one final time.

Ahead 4-2 going into the top of the seventh, Dalton Miller reached on a one-out error, Kindhart singled down the left-field line and Stupavsky singled through the hole on the left side of the infield to load the bases. Nolan Robb doubled down the right-field line to clear the bases and seemingly put the game away.

The rest was up to Dance.

He allowed a pair of one-out singles before inducing a flyball to left field from the Rams’ Vance Kurokawa. The righty finished the game by getting DePaul’s No. 3 hitter — senior catcher Oliver Vigerust — to hit into a fielder’s choice with Kindhart fielding a short hop and stepping on third base for the final out.

“A lot of relief,” Dance said. “I was getting up there in my pitch count, so I had to shorten up, make the hitters hit and let the defense work. I wanted to finish that game. I did my job, and Brady made a good play to finish it.”

Finally, that allowed the Raiders to smile and breathe and celebrate all they have accomplished.

“It’s definitely something special to be a part of,” Miller said. “To be able to play on the last day of the season, to be able to win your last game, not a lot of teams in the state can say they did that. It’s something that’s really special.”

The Raiders finished with a 36-2 record, surpassing the 2004 team for the most single-season victories in program history. The .947 winning percentage is the highest ever. Their 32-game win streak set a program record. They are the first team to win 30 games in the regular season.

And this is the third QND baseball squad to win a state trophy, joining the 1952 and 2004 squads that both finished second in their respective classes.

“Finishing a season like that — a historic season — it’s amazing,” Dance said. “There have been so many great teams come through this program, and this is just another one to add to it. This team was something special for sure.”

It has been since day one.

“I told them when we met that they set the precedent,” QND coach Rich Polak said. “They set the tone for the program. That senior group really did. Not excluding anyone else, but those dudes showed what it takes to get to this level.

“It takes a tremendous amount of dedication, a tremendous amount of sacrifice on their part. Just unbelievable what they did. We use the word ‘family,’ and this one really is. This one is.”