QUINCY – The Doggy Paddlers enter the final week of the regular season wrapping up this Thursday in their home in their season finale against the Burlington Bees looking for better results in their final four games.
They’re in the middle of another losing streak after a tough weekend with losses to O’Fallon 13-1, Illinois Valley twice 8-0 and 14-1 then on Sunday 11-1 to Burlington. They have four games left against division rivals Clinton and Burlington.
Quincy’s last win came against the LumberKings last Tuesday, but they dropped their recent two outings against them 17-13 and 7-6 last Wednesday.
Quincy head coach Brad Gyorkos on how great Clinton has been this season.
“They’re the best team in the league for a reason, they pitch really well they do everything really well,” Gyorkos said. “They execute runs when they need to get a run. It’s tough to make mistakes against a team like that and we’ve made too many mistakes and they’ve beaten us.”
The Doggy Paddlers in nine games against Clinton are 2-7, they’ll aim to make that season series record look better after this week. The LumberKings remain the No. 1 team in the Western Conference Northwest Division and are the overall third best team in the conference.
Only the O’Fallon Hoots (38-15) and Cape Catfish (34-19) remain ahead in the overall conference standings. Clinton is 32-18 overall. Quincy is last in the conference at 15-36.
Centerfielder Tommy Harrison on their last game against Clinton that ended in a 7-6 loss in 10 innings.
“I think we were pitching it well for those middle innings there,” Harrison said. “We were playing good defense getting a lot of ground balls but we weren’t offensively there, they had a couple good arms out there.”
Harrison went 1-for-5 with an RBI in the game. He talked about the adrenaline of an extra innings battle.
“Towards the end everyone gets the juices flowing more it’s more fun, everyone is trying harder but it was a solid performance overall even though we wanted to win,” Harrison said. “They’ve been one of the better teams we’ve played they’re fast, pitch it well they seem to play as a team.”
Quincy got off to a 2-0 start in that game after two innings, but went five straight innings with zero runs compared to Clinton scoring five unanswered runs from the third inning to the sixth.
Quincy scored three in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game up but couldn’t get on the board in the bottom of the tenth. Catcher Brayden Roberts went 2-for-3 with a run and two RBIs.
The Doggy Paddlers struggled at bat going 8-for-40 they hope for better production in these next three games against the LumberKings.
“Offensively we got going there at the end, they got going there at the start, but I was happy to see us fight back in the game,” said Gyorkos. “Then there at the end unfortunately we lined out twice that’s just part of baseball.”
Jared Marty made his seventh start of the season last time out against Clinton pitching for 4.2 innings throwing three strikeouts while allowing five hits, three runs, a walk and two errors.
Marty is now 2-6 as a starter after pitching in Sunday’s game against Burlington pitching for five innings and throwing four strikeouts, while allowing 12 hits, seven runs, and a walk.
Quincy had a forgettable performance on Sunday scoring just one run in the top of the third. Third baseman Jimmy Koza, first baseman Byron Blaise and shortstop Wandel Campana all recorded at least two hits in the 11-1 loss.
Quincy will have an opportunity to avenge their recent losses to Clinton and Burlington this week to finish the regular season facing both teams again.
“We just got to play consistent baseball,” said Gyorkos. “We’ve had good performances and then at times really bad but I just want to see consistent close baseball games.”
Quincy (15-36) will face Clinton (32-18) on the road in a doubleheader this Tuesday at 5 and 6:30 p.m. in Clinton, Iowa.
They’ll have one more road game against the LumberKings on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. before returning home to close out the regular season against Burlington this Thursday at 6:30 p.m.