QUINCY – The Doggy Paddlers have picked it up recently with back-to-back wins over the Burlington Bees on the road and now the Alton River Dragons Wednesday night in an 11-inning thriller that saw Quincy win 13-11.
Quincy improved to 6-7 now winning three of their last four games.
“The guys just fought. It was a long game, Alton gave us their best punch and our guys just stuck with it,” said Quincy head coach Brad Gyorkos. “The sixth and ninth innings were tough to watch but this teams fights man and I’m just proud of them tonight.”
After a back and forth the first eight innings, Alton would score three runs in the top of the ninth leading 9-6.
Doggy Paddlers infielder Brady Kindhart would double to center field scoring Jake Merda and Tommy Harrison to cut the deficit to 9-8. Kindhart would later score himself off a single from infielder Wandel Campana to tie the game.
“It takes everything. You have to pitch well, play defense and hit, and the defense took care of us in eighth,” Gyorkos said. “If we don’t make those plays, we don’t win the game and we’re probably home an hour and a half ago. I’m super happy that in big moments we have some guys who can step up.”
His guys continued to step up when it mattered most but Alton continued to apply immense pressure on Quincy after scoring two more runs in the top of the 10th to retake the 11-9 lead with a two RBI single.
In the bottom of the 10th arguably was the biggest play of the season thus far with Jimmy Koza homering inside the park scoring himself and Jameson Johnson to tie the game back up.
Krew Bond would follow suit homering down the infield line scoring himself and Kindhart to clinch the win 13-11.
“I wish I could say that’s the first time I’ve seen him hit an inside the park homer to tie or win the game,” said Gyorkos. “But it’s not. We’ve got a lot of guys in the dugout who have been there, done that, it’s nice to start finally stringing things together.”
Quincy (6-7) is now 3-4 at home with a chance to get to .500 at their ballpark and on the season on Thursday hosting the Burlington Bees (5-3) at 6:30 p.m.
“I told our assistants, when you win games like that, it can give you some momentum to go do some special things, it’s a big week for us,” said Gyorkos. “Hopefully we can get a good night’s sleep, get out here and go win tomorrow.”