Raiders fend off Hornets, pick up victory with ninth-inning rally

MT. STERLING, Ill. — A catcher’s interference call on a bunt attempt in the top of the ninth allowed the go-ahead run to score and the Quincy Notre Dame baseball team tacked on another to pull out a 7-5 victory over Brown County on Monday.

After each team scored a run in the eighth inning, a Nolan Robb double and Gavin Doellman bunt single put runners at the corners with no outs for the Raiders in the top of the ninth. After a strikeout, Cale Linenfelser squared to bunt, but Hornets catcher Jack Buss was called for interference. That allowed Robb to score the go-ahead run.

Doellman scored on a wild pitch, and Robb made the lead last by working around a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth.

Robb, a senior, threw four innings of relief to earn the victory. He allowed one run and six hits, while striking out six and walking none.

QND trailed 4-3 going to the sixth when Nick Spears reached on an error leading off, was sacrificed to second, stole third and scored on Logan Sutton’s infield single. The game stayed tied until the eighth when Sutton reached on an error with one out and scored on Abram Wiewel’s two-out double.

In the bottom of the eighth, Brown County’s Jack Sefton singled leading off but was erased with QND turned a double play. Matt Boylen followed with a single and scored on Maverick Henry’s double.

Doellman went 3 for 4 with two runs scored, while Robb finished 2 for 4 with two runs scored. Henry went 3 for 5 with a home run, two doubles and three RBIs, while Sefton went 2 for 4. Boylen and Wyatt Kassing combined to strike out 13 for the Hornets.