Extra-inning victory allows Blue Devils to split with reigning state champion Senators

QUINCY — Clutch at-bats in extra innings from both the Quincy High School and Springfield baseball teams allowed the clubs to split Saturday’s doubleheader at Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield.

The twinbill was moved to the turf field on the Quincy Notre Dame campus due to wet field conditions at QHS.

Quincy won the opener 3-2 on the strength of Luke Mettemeyer’s eighth-inning RBI single, while Springfield picked up a 6-2 victory in the nightcap with a four-run ninth inning.

In the bottom of the second inning in Game 1, QHS collected two-out RBI singles from Kenny Taylor and Connor Schwindeler and carried the 2-0 lead to the fifth. The Senators scrambled across a run in the fifth and another in the sixth to tie the game.

The Blue Devils had a chance to end the game in the bottom of the seventh, getting two runners on with one out, but they couldn’t advance either runner. In the eighth, a hit batter and two walks loaded the bases for QHS with one out. After a fielder’s choice groundout, senior catcher Luke Mettmeyer singled to left field to plate the winning run.

Mettemeyer finished 3 for 5, while Logan Eaton, Connor Schwindeler, Grayson Cook and Raulin Zanger had two hits apiece.

Senior right-hander Noah Harbin worked the first four innings, allowing three hits while striking out six and walking one. Harbin worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning, striking out the Senators’ Ben Wilson and Brody Erickson back-to-back.

Grayson Cook pitched the final four innings in relief, giving up two runs and three hits with three strikeouts and three walks. He retired the final five batters he faced.

In the second game, Quincy again struck first. Logan Eaton led off with a single, went to second on Schwindeler’s single and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Eaton scored on a passed ball for a 1-0 lead.

Schwindeler held the Senators scoreless for the first four innings before surrendering two unearned runs in the fifth. The right-hander struck out five, walked one and allowed just four hits.

The Blue Devils tied the game in the sixth when Harbin walked, Cook was hit by a pitch and Mettemeyer delivered an RBI single. Quincy loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh, but the inning ending on Cook’s lineout. Mettemeyer led off the eighth inning with a double, but was stranded there.

In the ninth, the Senators scored twice on a one-out single and added two more runs on a two-out error.

Mettemeyer and Schwindeler had two hits apiece, and Harbin added a double.