Hannibal beats Quincy 5-4 in 10 innings

The right to protest is one of the most valued American rights allotted by the First Amendment.
On this Independence Day, the Hannibal Cavemen exercised that right - a lot.
Let it never be said that making your voice heard never paid off. In a game that started with a Hannibal formal protest regarding the starting time and involved two different ejections and an extra inning to decide it all, the Cavemen earned a 5-4 win against the Quincy Gems, putting the Battle for the Paddle at 5-1 in favor of Quincy.
Hannibal manager Jay Hemond said the win came from a complete team effort from start to finish.
“It was nice to get the win, finally,” Hemond said. “… Our guys stayed in the ballgame and we got that run across when we needed it to get the win.”
That run came in the tenth inning, with the contest tied 4-4. In a stroke of luck, Quincy’s John Myers overthrew a routine ground ball, allowing Bryce Tafelski a free pass to second base and setting the table for the University of Missouri’s Garrison McLagan.
“I just wanted to go up there and be aggressive because I knew he was [throwing] lots of fastballs,” McLagan said.
That aggressive approach paid off when McLagan blooped a shot over into left-center field, lifting it just enough to give Tafelski the cushion he needed to plate the winning run.
“I kinda watched it,” McLagan admitted. “I was seeing if it was going to get into the gap. I was going to take two if it got past them.”
But for all of the 10th-inning excitement, there were plenty of fireworks earlier in the game to keep fans interested, like the performance of Hannibal starting pitcher Roy Metter. Coming into the game, the 6-foot-2 hurler out of Scottdale Community College was sporting a 5.59 ERA. But after posting a line that included seven innings three hits, one walk and one unearned run, the big right-hander was able to shave almost a full point off and keep his team in the game into later innings.
Metter said the defensive effort was a collaboration of everyone out on the field.
“I was throwing all of my pitches for strikes and Bryce was calling a great game behind the dish,” Metter said. “And, to top it off, my defense was making plays behind me again. It’s a lot of fun pitching when I’ve got those guys behind me.”
But not all of the contest took place between the foul lines. The first of the ejections came in the second inning when Hemond was tossed for arguing a call. Hemond was later joined in the fourth inning by Matt Burton after an issue when he was thrown out at first base.
However, all of the off-field activities were overshadowed in the seventh inning when Matt Gaudet improved upon his team-leading home run count, bumping his total to up to four on the season. Of his four home runs, three of them have been off of Quincy pitchers at Quincy University Stadium, all in almost the exact same spot over the left field wall.
“This is kind of a comfy ballpark with dimensions,” Hemond said. “That’s going to lead more offense. But Matt can hit it out of any ballpark in this league, as he has proven.”
The home run ties Gaudet with Richmond’s Tyler Bullock for most home runs in the Prospect League.
Guadet’s home run would not be the only long ball heroics for the night. In an effort to keep his team from going quietly into the night, the Gems’ Luke Schlechte hit a three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth off of the Cavemen’s James Hudelson.
Though, where Hudelson struggled, Steve Godawa was able to thrive. In two innings of work, Godawa only gave up one walk on his way to picking up his first win of the season.
Saturday’s game started a four-game road trip for the Cavemen, with them taking on Richmond Monday night. Hemond said that he could not think of a better way to start off a road trip.
“We think a win is a good way to start a road trip, it’s good in the middle and it’s a good way to end it,” Hemond said. “Hopefully, we’ll start stacking up some wins again.”