KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It was a Hawk battle Friday night (Mar. 21) as Quincy traveled to Kansas City, Missouri, to take on the Hawks of Rockhurst University for game one of a four-game series. An eight-run outburst in the first inning from Rockhurst propelled them to a game-one victory in seven innings, with a final score of 16-4.
Quincy went down quietly in the first inning, which was the opposite of what Rockhurst did. Thirteen men came to the plate for RU, as they scored eight runs on five hits, two errors, three walks, and a hit-by-pitch to give themselves an 8-0 lead after one inning of play.
QU scored their first two runs in the third inning after a sacrifice fly from
Isaiah Fudge and an error from the RU centerfielder. However, Rockhurst had an answer in the home half. After an error and a runner reaching on a drop third strike extended the inning, the RU offense made Quincy pay. One run came in via a groundout to first base, but a three-run homer from their right fielder made it 12-2 after three.
The Hawks tried to chip away at the Rockhurst lead, scoring two more in the fifth inning after run-scoring hits from Fudge and
Matt Mateo, but RU answered once again. Three more runs came around to score in the bottom of the fifth courtesy of two RBI singles and a wild pitch bringing in a run.
Leyton Parmer made his collegiate debut for the Hawks in the sixth inning, as he gave up an unearned run and struck out two batters. The one run came in with an RBI single for Rockhurst, extending its lead to 16-4.
Entering the seventh, Quincy needed to push across at least three runs to extend the game. The Hawks were able to load the bases after a few free passes from the Rockhurst pitching staff but left the runners stranded after a strikeout ended the ballgame.
The Quincy pitching and defense struggled once again, committing six errors, which allowed seven unearned runs to cross the plate.
Kade Ruffner earned the loss after only recording one out, moving his record to 1-2.
Roman Harrison managed to strike out a career-high 11 batters despite giving up seven runs, with only two being earned, in 4.2 innings of work out of the bullpen.
The Hawks were outhit 13-8 and left nine runners on base. Hits in the game from Fudge and Mateo extended their hitting streaks, with Mateo up to an 11-game hit streak and Fudge up to eight games.
Quincy will look to regroup and snap their losing streak tomorrow with doubleheader action against Rockhurst. The first pitch of game one is expected to be thrown at 12:00 PM in Kansas City.
