Johnson, Wiewel help Raiders storm back for victory over Hannibal before storm ends game

QUINCY – The Quincy Notre Dame baseball team provided a little thunder and lightning just before Mother Nature delivered the real thing.

Eli Johnson doubled off the left-field fence to drive home the go-ahead run, and Abram Wiewel followed with a two-run homer to cap a six-run fifth inning to carry the Raiders to a 10-7 victory over Hannibal Wednesday night at Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield.

QND parlayed five hits and a key two-out walk to Oliver Triplett before Johnson and Wiewel delivered the decisive blows to erase a 7-4 deficit. Lightning in the top of the sixth halted the game, which was called after a 35-minute delay.

It was a needed comeback for the youthful Raiders, who will carry a five-game winning streak into Saturday’s home doubleheader against Chatham Glenwood after a 1-3 start to the season.

“It could have definitely gone south,” said Wiewel, who had three hits and has now homered three times in his last four games. “We have to come in with the same mindset, just trying to get on base and make things happen. We struggled a little bit but made things happen towards the end.”

Consecutive one-out singles by Brodi Lahr, Logan Sutton and Kaden Marth in the fifth pulled QND within 7-5 and knocked out Hannibal starter Cole Baxter. Sutton scored on a wild pitch by Pirates’ reliever Patrick Arthaud, and an RBI groundout by Weston Reyburn tied it.

Triplett drew a walk on a 3-2 count, stole second and scored on Johnson’s ringing double off the fence. Wiewel then drilled a 2-0 pitch over the left-field fence and onto Ninth Street.

“Once we started swinging it, there was no turning back,” said Johnson, a freshman first baseman who reached base three times and scored three runs. “We wanted to come out and make a statement that we’re the better team, and that’s what we did. We came out here and made a statement.”

It didn’t start out that way. Lahr, the starter, had trouble locating the strike zone. The right-hander struck out four and allowed just two hits before being pulled with two outs in the third, but he issued five walks and hit a batter.

That enabled Hannibal, now 5-8, to score twice in the first and two more times in the second.

“Brodi’s been pretty good for us,” Raiders coach Rich Polak said. “He struggled with the zone. I think he got in his own way a little trying to be a little bit too fine. But I look for him to bounce back and do well for us.”

Gavin Doellman belted a three-run homer over the left-field fence in the bottom of the first inning, but QND managed just a single run after loading the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the third. Baxter kept the hosts off balance with a steady diet of off-speed pitches.

The Raiders stranded six runners overall.

Given a reprieve, the Pirates scored three times in the fourth, aided by an errant pickoff attempt by reliever Samuel Klauser (one of three Raiders errors) after Reid Holliday opened the inning with a single.

After a walk put runners on first and third, Cooper Scott doubled down the right field line to break the 4-4 tie, and Brody Wilson followed with a run-scoring single, his third RBI of the game. A groundout by Waylon Anders made it 7-4.

That set the stage for the decisive fifth inning.

“It’s huge anytime that you’re down like that, and you can get up off the mat and punch back and get yourself in the game and then take the lead to be in position to win the ballgame,” Polak said.

“I’m not happy with where we’re at yet, but I’m excited about where we’re going. We have to clean up some things defensively, and obviously our pitchers need to throw more strikes. Our guys are young and sometimes they get caught up in things, but we came out on the side for the better.”