Weppler’s back problems now in rear-view mirror for Quincy High School softball squad

PAYSON, Ill. — Slowly, but ever so surely, Izzy Weppler is carving out her softball niche as a member of the Quincy High School pitching staff.

The left-handed sophomore made just her second start of the season Monday afternoon, pitching the Blue Devils past Payson Seymour 7-3.

Weppler has worked to overcome a series of back problems in recent years and is just now beginning to flash the form QHS coach Anjay Heinecke has been waiting to see. Weppler didn’t pitch as a freshman and wants nothing more than to be a key contributor during the second half of this season.

“My confidence is building,” said Weppler, whose final line was marred by a couple of unearned runs Payson pushed across in the bottom of the seventh. “Absolutely everything was working really well, and the team had my back. We’ve grown so much as a team this year.”

Weppler surrendered just one earned run while striking out seven, walking two and allowing seven hits. She worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the second by fanning the side. She then limited the damage from another bases-loaded predicament in the fifth (with only one down) by allowing just one run.

“Izzy has been doing really well,” Heinecke said. “She hasn’t had a whole lot of time (on the mound), but I’ve been really impressed.”

Quincy (5-9) broke the game open with a four-run outburst in the top of the seventh, punctuated via a three-run home run from senior Avary Hluber that soared over the 195-foot sign in left field. That put the Blue Devils up 7-1.

“It got away from us at the end,” said Payson coach Joe Fessler, whose club fell to 6-8-1 and has dropped four straight by a combined 35-12 count.

“I was just hoping to hit a gap,” Hluber said.

Hluber said she was most pleased with simply contributing to help end a three-game skid for the Blue Devils.

“No one player can (do it all),” she said. “It takes a team.”

The home run was Hluber’s third of the season.

Heinecke appreciated Hluber’s blast for more reasons than just the scoreboard.

“That home run gave us a lot more … peace of mind,” said Heinecke of the six-run margin it provided. “I was also nice to see because Avary had been struggling, and that should help her confidence.”

Ivy Winter, Ariana Adorno, Maggie Neally and Mia Ellefritz also collected base hits for the Blue Devils. Winter, Neally and Carlee Gilker are all hitting better than .400 for Quincy.

The game was far from textbook. The two clubs combined leave a combined 16 runners on base and committed six errors.

Fessler said he’s looking for “some leadership” to emerge as the Indians head toward the season’s stretch run. He said the Indians to need to sharpen all aspects of their game if they are going to win a second straight regional title.

Sam Hilgenberg, Megan Kirby and Abby Hagerbaumer all collected a pair of hits for Payson, which pushed across its run in the fifth inning when Bryn Buescher drove in Hilgenberg with a sacrifice fly. Payson’s seventh-inning scores resulted largely from three Quincy errors.

Hagerbaumer was the losing pitcher, being touched for all seven of Quincy’s runs over the final three innings. She had limited QHS to one hit over the first four frames. Four of the runs she allowed were unearned.

“I think (Hagerbaumer) just ran out of gas,” Fessler said.