Jacks hammer out district playoff win

EPHRATA — For the first time in almost four decades the Quincy Jacks found a way to go through a season without losing to their arch-rivals Ephrata.

On Wednesday night making history couldn’t have been sweeter.

Behind a seven-run eighth inning barrage, the Jacks (10-11) took over what had been a close contest and turned it into a 11-5 romp in a Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) District Play-In game.

Quincy now face Othello on Saturday at 1 p.m. in a CWAC First Round contest on the Huskies’ home diamond.

“The kids were ready to fight,” Quincy coach Pat McGuire said. “Our kids knew what to expect and were ready to go.”

The teams battled back and forth with Ephrata (9-12) taking the early 1-0 lead through three innings before Quincy surged on top with two runs in the top of the fourth.

The Jacks led 4-2 going into the bottom of the sixth before they gave up their cushion when Ephrata brought two runs across homeplate to tie the score.

Yet McGuire and the Jacks were confident heading into the seventh inning tied with the host Tigers.

“We narrowed it down to a short game and were still in it,” McGuire said. “We had our best pitchers on the mound and we actually expected to beat them.”

By the eighth, Quincy took advantage of what they felt was Ephrata starting pitcher, Tanner Williams’, apparent fatigue.

“Williams was at least at 120 to130 pitches and I talked to the kids and told them that if we put some pressure on him we could beat him in that inning and we could win,” McGuire said. “The kids took that and went the extra mile with it.”

Quincy recorded 14 hits — 13 of which were singles — and were led on offense by Trevor Hyer’s 2-for-4 performance with a double and three RBI.

Brett Peterson and Daniel Padron each went 3-for-5 and Jackson Hodges finished 2-for-5.

Johnny Navarro won the game at the mound in relief of Quincy starter Craig Omlin who threw six complete innings.

“They were capable of this and I expected to see it happen,” McGuire said. “We swept them at our place when we had a doubleheader and the games weren’t that close.”

Ephrata was led by Bradley Spencer who went 3-for-4 and the 2-for-3 performances of Bryce Beavers and Clayton Bracht.

“We had multiple chances to win the game but made costly mistakes in the field and on the base paths,” Ephrata coach Jason Laugen said. “Quincy was able to produce at the plate with runners on base, while we were not able to.”