MARION, Ill – The Hawks put all facets of the game together to take down the three-seeded Saints of Maryville University on day one of the GLVC Championship Tournament on Wednesday afternoon (May 7). Quincy chipped away on the scoreboard through nine innings and limited the MU offense in a 7-3 victory. 

After a scoreless first frame, the Hawks snagged the lead in the second inning with a single through the right side from the QU backstop Byron Blaise. The Quincy lead doubled in the third with an opposite-field double down the left-field line from Matt Mateo to make it 2-0.

In the home half of the third, the Saints tied the game with one swing of the bat courtesy of a two-run homer clearing the right field wall into the MU bullpen. Quincy had an answer, scoring for the third consecutive inning, as two runs came into score after a single to center from JD Ortiz.

Moving into the seventh, the QU lead continued to grow. Mateo drove in his second run of the game with a seeing-eyed single up the middle. Two batters later, Joe Huffman got in on the action and brought in Mateo with a single to left field. 

Hawks starter Kobe Essien continued to be a reliable number-one arm for the Hawks. The two runs in the third inning were the only earned runs he gave up all game. Essien worked into the seventh inning, as an unearned run came across to score to make the game 6-3. After recording two outs, Essien was pulled with 111 pitches after tossing 6.2 innings, giving up three runs, two earned, on six hits, one walk, and six strikeouts. 

Coach Matt Schissel went to Tom Conzemius out of the bullpen, who struck out the Saints centerfielder to conclude the seventh inning with the Hawks leading 6-3. Quincy continued to chip away offensively, adding an insurance run in the eighth inning. David Broughton poked a line drive over the third baseman to score Isaiah Fudge all the way from first. Conzemius surrendered a one-out single in the home half of the eighth but worked around it to send the game to the final inning.

The Hawks went down quietly in the ninth inning, as Conzemius trotted out for the ninth, looking for the seven-out save. Tom punched out the leadoff man and followed it up with back-to-back weak groundouts to earn a day-one victory over Maryville.

Quincy moved its winning streak to five games and has been playing some of their most complete baseball of the season. The Hawks outhit Maryville 13-7 with all nine starters recording a hit and committing just one error to the Saint's five. Essien and Conzemius combined for eight strikeouts and only allowed one free pass. Kobe earned his fourth win of the season and Tom closed down his second game of the year, continuing his dominance out of the bullpen, surrendering just one unearned run in his last 13.2 innings pitched.

The Hawks will play tomorrow at 4:00 PM CDT against the winner of the game three which consists of the two seeded Prairie Stars of Illinois Springfield and the Missouri S&T Miners, who are the seventh seed.