Quincy, IL- The O’Fallon Hoots traveled east across the Mississippi for their first matchup against the Quincy Doggy Paddlers and came out victorious after an extra inning 7-6 win. After a rain delay of about 90 minutes the Hoots offense started slow but came through when needed in the clutch.
Coach Carter Mize sent right-hander Nate Estopare two the mound and he delivered with a quality start as he went 5.0 innings and only allowed a single run. He was matched step-by-step by Quincy’s Nick Wilson who also went 5.0 inning while keeping the Hoots scoreless.
As soon as the Paddlers went to the bullpen things went downhill. Some small ball and timely hitting brought three runs home for the Hoots in the sixth, but Quincy’s bats did not go down without a fight as they forced extra innings after an already late night.
Extra innings brought fireworks for both teams as the Hoots scored four runs thanks to Ethan Cantareira’s RBI double, Matthew Rauser’s RBI single, a wild pitch, and an RBI walk for Nick Bonczkowski. Noah Jones, who pitched a clean bottom of the ninth inning, came back in and secured the win for O’Fallon but not before a towering three-run home run by John Shuey made it a one-run game.
Jones went on to get the last two outs finishing off the O’Fallon victory in the teams first extra inning game of the season. The now 8-11 Hoots look ahead to facing the Clinton LumberKings on Thursday, June 18th at 6:30 PM.
