Hlubek sisters combine for four HRs as QHS softball team takes both ends of twibill from Granite City

QUINCY — Kamryn Hlubek loves her mother dearly, but she may have to tell her mom to watch the Quincy softball team’s games from somewhere besides the ballpark.

Kamryn, a freshman outfielder for the Blue Devils, hit her first career home run — a solo blast in the third inning of a 13-3 mercy rule victory over Granite City in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader — without her mother, Holly Hlubek, in attendance. The same thing happened to her older sister, Avary, and her younger brother, Peyton.

“(I’ll have to tell her to) watch online,” Kamryn Hlubek said.

Holly was on volleyball duty with the youngest of her four children on this day.

“They have a lot of kids going in different directions,” Blue Devils coach Anjay Heinecke said. “It’s hard for both parents to be here to witness everything. I’m sure that Holly is probably going to regret not coming to this game. Hopefully she got to watch it on GameChanger and cheer (Kamryn) on from afar.”

Kamryn Hlubek said she did not realize the ball had cleared the centerfield fence until she heard the audible gasp from her teammates.

“My heart was racing,” Kamryn Hlubek said. “I started sprinting around the bases. It was just so exciting.”

As if Kamryn Hlubek’s first homer wasn’t enough to celebrate in the Hlubek household, Avary launched three home runs on Saturday. Two came in game one and another towering drive was in the fifth inning of game two, which the Blue Devils won 17-7, again in five innings.

“All three of them, honestly, you can just hear the difference between solid contact and not,” Avary Hlubek said. “They all felt pretty good.”

Hlubek’s three-homer day was her latest entry in a late-season resurgence. Hlubek, a first-team All-Western Big 6 Conference selection last season, went hitless in seven of her first 11 games, but she has hit safely in 13 of 14 games since and has hit five home runs during that time.

Hlubek suffered a fibula spiral fracture during the offseason, which she said contributed a bit to her slow start.

“It’s honestly been a mental game,” Avary Hlubek said. “I had a really bad injury over the summer, so it’s definitely been a journey getting back. I think I’ve gotten more confidence throughout the games and just been hitting better.”

Not to be outdone by the Hlubek sisters, Maycee Seward also hit her first varsity home run, though it was much more of a wall-scraper — literally — compared to the four from the Hlubeks. Her first-inning solo home run clanked off the top of the left-field fence and bounced over to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead.

“I felt like that set the stage and brought a lot of energy,” Seward said, “We already had a lot of energy at the start of the game, but I feel like that really just helped get everybody hyped up and set the stage for the whole day.”

Seward had hit three home runs on the JV team, but she said her first varsity home run hits differently.

“Definitely,” she said.

Seward’s longball set the Blue Devils’ offense in motion. Quincy scored in all five innings of game one and four of five innings of game two. The Blue Devils had 12 hits in game one and 18 hits in game two.

“I think this sets the stage for how the rest of our season is going to go,” Kamryn Hlubek said.

The Blue Devils led 9-7 entering the bottom of the fifth inning in game two, then rattled off eight runs — four of which came with two outs.

“Us being able to make sure we maintain our momentum throughout the game has been something we’ve been focusing on,” Heinecke said. “To come out here for a doubleheader and stay focused for 10 innings and be able to reset for game two was something we’ve been working on really hard. We remind them and remind them, and it’s nice to see that it sometimes actually works out for us.”

Blue Devils third baseman Ivy Winter went 5 for 8 and scored seven runs in the two games. Freshman Maggie Neally hit her sixth home run of the season in game two. Kendyl Byquist and Kamryn Hlubek had two hits in each game out of the eighth and ninth spots in the order, respectively.

Quincy (10-17) will play host to Rock Island in Western Big 6 Conference play on Monday.