Triplett survives tightrope walk, leaves bases loaded in seventh as QND baseball team turns tables on QHS

QUINCY — On Friday, redemption was spelled “Q-N-D.”

Ten days after losing to Quincy High School 10-0, the Quincy Notre Dame baseball team exacted crosstown revenge by beating the Blue Devils 9-6 on Friday.

“We really needed this,” QND junior catcher and right-handed pitcher Oliver Triplett said.

Triplett’s tightrope act in the bottom of the seventh inning gave the Raiders a scare, but as it turned out, he did not need the safety harness to save him. Triplett, who relieved starting pitcher Abram Wiewel in the sixth, loaded the bases with two walks and a hit batter with two outs in the seventh.

“The blood was pumping really fast,” Triplett said. “I kind of got the yips a little bit and needed to calm myself down.”

Triplett then fell behind Quincy ninth-place hitter Jacob Salisbury 3-0, but he fired in two strikes in succession then got Salsbury to swing and miss for the final out. Triplett pumped his fists and let out multiple yells.

“I made it kind of scary, so to work through that inning had me really amped up,” Triplett said.

QND freshman first baseman Eli Johnson was so amped up he nearly tackled Triplett as the Raiders made their way to the handshake line.

“Emotions were running high,” Johnson said. “We knew we had to win that game because the last game, we didn’t come out with the fire we needed.”

Triplett said the Raiders did not have that fire for the first three innings on Friday, either. Mason Dent’s two-run home run put the Blue Devils on top in the bottom of the first. James Day, the same pitcher who threw a complete-game shutout against the Raiders on May 6, kept QND off the scoreboard through three innings. Johnson getting caught stealing third for the first out of the first inning did not help QND’s cause, either.

“When something bad happens in the first inning, it stays with us for the next few innings,” Triplett said. “When Eli got thrown out at third base, that kind of deflated the energy a little bit. We just had to build ourselves back up.”

Triplett helped lift the Raiders’ spirits with a two-RBI double in the fourth that split the left-center field gap and tied the game.

“I knew we needed something huge,” Triplett said. “I knew if I stepped up and got a big hit, it would get that energy going. When we get down, we kind of lose all the energy, so we just need something really big to fuel us back up.”

The Raiders used that fuel to score two more runs that inning — one on Weston Reyburn’s groundout to shortstop Cameron Lawson, who made a diving play to rob Reyburn of a base hit, and another when Triplett scored on a passed ball with two outs.

Wiewel struck out the side in the bottom of the fourth, giving the Raiders an opportunity to further capitalize on the momentum they built the inning before. Bradi Lahr, the second batter of the top of the fifth, roped a double to drive in a run. Kaden Marth extended the Raiders’ lead to 6-2 with a one-out single to left, then Johnson padded the lead with a two-out, two-RBI single.

“Once we jumped on them, we knew we were going to win,” Johnson said. “All of us were hitting. Everyone was barreling baseballs. We all just took our approaches and kept hitting.”

The Blue Devils answered with two runs in both the fifth and sixth innings and got the potential tying run to the plate with two outs in the sixth after Lawson’s RBI single. Triplett got Drake Gibson to fly out to center fielder Gavin Doellman to end the threat.

Then it was Marth’s turn to step into the spotlight. He turned on the first pitch he saw from Chase Saalborn leading off the seventh, got it up into the howling wind blowing out to left field and watched it sail out of the park for his first high school home run. He became the sixth Raider to join the first home run club and the third freshman to homer for QND this season.

“I’ve never even hit the fence in batting practice, so that shocked me,” Marth said. “The wind definitely played a factor in that, so big thank you to the wind.”

Johnson knew it was only a matter of time before Marth, affectionately known as “K-Mart,” ran into one.

“I’m so happy for that kid,” Johnson said. “He said he would never get one, but I knew in the back of my mind he was eventually going to get one. He got a fastball, and he hammered it.”

With the win, the Raiders take the season series from the Blue Devils. QND won 5-4 on March 22 at QU Stadium.

“Exciting times for these guys,” QND coach Rich Polak said. “It’s always good when you win the crosstown series. It’s a good day.”

QND (18-9) will face Jacksonville Routt on Saturday before playing host to a regional semifinal game against Petersburg PORTA on May 21.

Quincy (14-16) will have to win its final two regular season games to reach the .500 mark. The Blue Devils will play road games against Wentzville Timberland and Jacksonville on May 19 and 24.

“We like to play good competition this time of year to get ready for the playoffs,” Blue Devils coach Rick Lawson said.

The playoffs for the Blue Devils begin May 29 when they take on Belleville West in the regional semifinals in Belleville.