QUINCY — Quincy Notre Dame softball is its usual self, approaching the postseason playing great at the right time winning four straight headed into senior night on Tuesday against Augusta Southeastern.
The Lady Raiders put together another vintage QND performance, defeating the Suns 16-1 in four innings at the Backyard. The Lady Raiders celebrated their senior class before and after their fifth win in a row.
QND senior pitcher Caitlin Bunte on staying focused on the win.
“We all knew that we had work to do,” said Bunte. “That was our main focus going into the game and celebrating afterwards. We want to go as far as we can. We have to keep pushing towards that these wins are great, but we also have to keep working hard in practice and work towards the next one.”
QND jumped on the Suns early with four runs in the bottom of the first followed by an even more explosive second inning with eight runs. They outscored Southeastern 4-0 in the third and gave up one run in the top of the fourth.
QND head coach Eric Orne on the joy of a dominant win on senior night.
“The kids put a lot of time in our program,” said Orne. “They came out got an opportunity to be honored on the field, play in the game, so those things are nice. It’s a beautiful day, we enjoyed it all today. They’re doing their part. That’s what’s important and I think you see that in our team, the excitement we have in the dugout each inning.”
He spoke more on his senior class of six leading the team.
“The biggest thing is they’ve really allowed me and the coaching staff to enjoy this,” said Orne. “The culture is really good they take care of business, they aren’t the ones letting the freshmen do all the work.”
QND is looking for another deep postseason run reaching the 20-win mark with five straight wins after dropping two against Southwestern and Carrollton last month.
The Raiders will host Regionals and have the two seed once the postseason approaches.
“We found out we got the two seed in the sub-sectional and we’re hosting regionals, so I think it’s a little motivation that we are the two seed,” said Orne. “We just want to take it one day at a time. We want to finish the regular season strong and on a roll like we’ve been.”
He spoke on how his star pitcher and hitter Bunte has been playing.
“She’s just dominating right now, you can just see the smile in her face,” said Orne. “She was the first one out here today getting some extra hitting in. She’s just enjoying the game and playing as well as anybody I’ve ever had.”
QND (20-4) will go on the road against the Macomb Bombers (8-17) this Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
“I’ve been trying to enjoy my time here and being less stressed about trying to do all these things that’s helping me out and my teammates are helping me tremendously,” said Bunte.