SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Quincy University baseball team was swept by No. 24 Illinois Springfield after falling 15-5 in seven innings on Sunday afternoon. The Prairie Stars hit three more home runs in the finale and finished the four-game series with 11 total homers.
Quincy struck first in the opening inning when
Jace Figuereo doubled to begin the game and later scored on an RBI groundout by
Isaiah Fudge for a 1-0 lead. Illinois Springfield answered immediately in the bottom half, using a two-run double and a three-run home run to cap a six-run inning and take a 6-1 lead.
The Hawks chipped away in the third inning.
Joe Huffman was hit by a pitch before
Payton Mansfield launched his fifth home run of the season, a two-run shot that cut the deficit to 6-3. Quincy added two more runs in the fourth when
Byron Blaise singled and
David Broughton doubled to put runners in scoring position. Figuereo followed with a sacrifice fly, and
Ben Dahlof added an RBI groundout to make it a one-run game at 6-5.
However, Illinois Springfield responded with another big inning in the bottom of the fourth, using a three-run homer to extend the lead back to 9-5. The Prairie Stars added three more runs in the fifth and another in the sixth before ending the game in the seventh on a two-run single.
Dahlof extended his hit streak to five games with his 13th multi-hit game of the season and is now batting .378 on the year. Huffman also recorded his 14th multi-hit performance of the season and raised his batting average to .373.
Carson Moreno extended his hit streak to four games with his second straight two-hit performance and fourth multi-hit game of the season.
On the mound,
Ben Draeger took the loss after allowing nine runs over four innings.
Ryan Sell,
Dylan Graw,
Logan Mueller, and
Ethan McMasters all appeared in relief as Quincy struggled to slow down the Prairie Stars offense.
The Hawks will look for a much-needed bounce-back series as they return home to face McKendree for a four-game series inside QU Stadium. Game one is scheduled for Thursday with first pitch at 2:00 PM.