‘It’s a big, big, big win’: Coming into game with 3-15 record, West Hancock baseball team stuns QND

HAMILTON, Ill. — Layton Conkright’s exuberance after the final out encapsulated what Thursday’s 9-4 victory over Quincy Notre Dame meant to him and the West Hancock baseball program.

After Conkright got Logan Sutton to ground out to end the game, Conkright pumped his fists, let out a roar that was probably audible from Warsaw and chucked his glove high in the air toward the Titans dugout before joining his teammates in celebration.

“It was just excitement,” Conkright said.

It was a signature victory for first-year head coach Kennedy Gooding.

“It’s huge for us, huge for the kids, huge for the kids, huge for the schools,” Gooding said. “That’s what life’s about — feeling the emotions, living and being good people. We beat a really good ballclub, and we’re just thrilled with that.”

West Hancock entered Thursday’s West Central Conference contest with a 3-15 record, with two victories over Astoria/VIT and another over Bushnell-Prairie City. Those teams have a combined record of 2-45.

The Titans lost their first five games and had lost five in a row until beating QND, which entered Thursday with a 17-7 record and has put together four separate four-game winning streaks.

“It’s been a rough season, but with that win, I think it’s a successful season,” Conkright said. “I really feel good about it.”

The Titans’ struggles against the Raiders made their triumph even sweeter. The nine runs West Hancock scored on Thursday matched their run total in the previous six meetings with QND, all Raiders victories. QND outscored West Hancock 53-9 in those games, and four of them were decided by at least eight runs.

“Everybody in the state knows what Quincy Notre Dame baseball is all about,” Gooding said. “For our program, we were just talking here trying to figure out when the last time West Hancock, if ever, has beaten Notre Dame in baseball.”

Record of that is inconclusive, but Conkright summed up the gravity of the victory.

“It’s a big, big, big win,” Conkright said.

Layton Conkright’s older brother, Grayson Conkright, gave the Titans a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a three-run home run to left field, a moment Layton Conkright said gave him and his teammates the belief they needed.

“That set the tone for the game, for sure,” Layton Conkright said.

The Raiders answered with two runs in the top of the second and got the tying run to the plate, but Alten Lowman induced a fly out off the bat of Abram Wiewel.

The Raiders brought up the potential tying run again in the top of the third, but that was the last time they did so.

The Titans loaded the bases in the bottom that inning on three walks by QND starter Rowan Stegeman before scoring four runs — one on a steal of home by Brayden Carter, another when Juris Pohren legged out a potential double play to allow Stephen Poland to score, and two more on Layton Conkright’s two-out, two-RBI single.

Logan Baker drove in another Titans run with a single in the fourth, and the Raiders did not score again until the seventh, when Layton Conkright and the Titans thought they had won three different times before the final out. Gavin Doellman reached with two outs when he hit a ground ball to Grayson Conkright at third and the field umpire declared Titans first baseman Braxton Scott pulled his foot off the bag, allowing Stegeman to score.

Layton Conkright’s borderline 0-2 pitch to the next batter, Sam Westhaus, was called a ball, resulting in a quizzical look from the pitcher. Westhaus singled to left field on the next pitch, and Doellman narrowly beat the throw to home plate, again resulting in frustration from Conkright and his teammates.

The Titans’ coaching staff reminded its players to stay calm.

“There were a couple things that didn’t go our way, but that’s adversity,” Gooding said. “I love to see the emotion, but one of our assistant coaches, Coach (Jeff) Harness, was saying over here, ‘We don’t need to get this worked up. We have a five-run lead. We still have plenty of chances.’”

That next chance was Sutton, whose ground out to Grayson Conkright sealed the deal.

“I was out there running and screaming,” said Lowman, who moved to left field after pitching the first 3 ⅔ innings. “We finally did it. It felt like a lot of weight off of our shoulders because we haven’t had a lot of good games so far.”

Lowman sprinted in from the outfield — this time for good — to join the mob of Titans near the dugout before shaking hands with the QND players and coaches.

“It was amazing,” Lowman said. “I thought we won multiple times. I was starting to head back in, but then I was like, ‘Aw, man,’ but we ended up doing it.”

That seventh inning, just like the Titans’ season, tested their ability to live by the quote taped to the wall inside West Hancock’s home dugout. The quote, credited to Babe Ruth, reads, “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”

“That’s everything in life,” Gooding said. “It’s baseball, but it’s life, too, and that showed today.”

Raiders coach Rich Polak, who has coached with Gooding and has connections with several West Hancock players, congratulated the Titans on a monumental win.

“I feel happy for them,” Polak said. “It’s good for him. A lot of the players on that squad play for me during the summer, so I feel really good for them — not that we lost, but that they had some success. I’m glad that they did well today.”

West Hancock (4-15) will face Macomb in a Macomb Regional quarterfinal preview on Friday, while QND (17-8) will have Friday off before heading to the St. Louis area for a doubleheader with Lutheran St. Charles on Saturday.