Day waits to hear about classroom test but aces test on pitcher’s mound in QHS shutout of QND

QUINCY — James Day doesn’t necessarily want to take his AP Government test again, but if it helps him pitch like he did on Tuesday, he gladly would.

About an hour before his scheduled start against Quincy Notre Dame, Day, a junior at Quincy High School, finished the test he needs to pass to earn college credit for that advanced placement course. He rushed to Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield, arrived with 45 minutes to get warmed up, and proceeded to toss a 72-pitch, complete-game shutout in the Blue Devils’ 10-0 victory.

“The first half of my day was Plessy v Ferguson and all these court cases, then I came here and started pitching,” Day said. “I may have to try to take it again. There’s a retake coming up. I think I might have to do it the next time I pitch.”

The grind of the exam occupied Day’s mind before he had to take the mound, and while he felt relaxed leading up to his outing, he did not have a sharp bullpen session before the game.

“I went in that bullpen, and it was awful. It was terrible,” Day said. “There were like four passed balls that came down (near the QHS dugout). It was the worst bullpen I think I’ve ever thrown.”

By the time he took the mound, though, Day had corrected whatever was plaguing him in the bullpen. He struck out seven without walking a batter and induced 10 ground balls that resulted in outs.

“The sinker was mean today,” Day said. “Pitch after pitch, I was throwing it and getting little choppers.”

Blue Devils coach Rick Lawson said Day pitched as well as he ever has seen from him.

“That’s one of the best, most efficient, for sure,” Lawson said. “He had the sinker working today and just got ground ball after ground ball, and our guys were making plays.”

Quincy spotted Day a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Day only gave up a single in three innings before Nate Konrad led of the fourth with a home run over the tall left-field wall.

“I didn’t (know if it was going to leave) because of the high fence, but once I heard the cheering, I knew it was gone,” Konrad said.

Jacob Salisbury rang a double off the right field fence to drive in two more runs, and Cameron Lawson drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs in that inning to make it a 7-0 game. 

Day only allowed one baserunner to reach scoring position the rest of the game, and Mason Dent cranked his first home run of the season leading off the seventh.

“I felt it off the bat and had a feeling it might go out,” Dent said. “I didn’t want to do anything crazy, but I had a hunch it was gone. I was like, ‘Finally I got one out of the park.’ It took me long enough.”

As if things could get any tougher for QND, Blue Devils center fielder Trace Routh robbed Raiders first baseman Eli Johnson of extra bases with a diving catch in the right center field gap for the second out of the bottom of the sixth.

“I was jumping up and down on the mound,” Day said. “That was the best catch I’ve probably ever seen playing high school baseball. That was absurd.”

QND coach Rich Polak could not help but shake his head.

“When it rains, it pours,” Polak said.

Konrad added two doubles to go along with his home run. Day, Salisbury and Dent all had two hits and drove in five runs between them. Seven hitters in the Quincy lineup scored a run or had an RBI, and the Blue Devils cranked out 12 hits.

“We hit a lot of balls hard today,” Lawson said. “We’ve had some bad luck where we’ve hit balls hard and they’re right at guys, but they found holes today, and that’s fun.”

On Wednesday, Quincy (10-14) will play the second half of its home-and-home with Sterling, which defeated the Blue Devils 3-2 on Monday. QND (16-7) begins a stretch of six straight road games with a contest against Augusta Southeastern on Wednesday.