By MATT SCHUCKMAN
Herald-Whig Sports Writer
Although the high school baseball season is a month old, Thursday's rain-delayed matchup between Hannibal and Quincy Notre Dame had the uneasy air of a season opener.
"It feels like we've started this season over three times now," QND coach Chris Martin said.
It sort of looked like it, too.
Playing for only the second time in two weeks, the Raiders managed just four hits against a pair of underclassmen and couldn't overcome a seven-run deficit in an 11-5 loss at the QND field.
QND has managed just four hits -- all singles -- in its last 12 innings.
"We didn't have the energy I thought we'd have for the first nice day since we went to Champaign two weeks ago," Martin said. "We're in a funk. We're in a team-wide funk."
Hannibal had been as well.
The Pirates (5-4) lost four straight games, averaging just two runs per game, before a 4-3 victory over Moberly on Tuesday in which sophomore reliever Charlie Fohey inherited runners on second and third base in the seventh inning with no outs.
He escaped the jam by enducing two popouts and a strikeout.
For that, he was rewarded with the start against QND.
The left-handed Fohey worked 4 1/3 innings, facing the minimum 12 batters through four innings and leaving after allowing four runs in the fifth. Overall, he allowed four runs on four hits with three walks.
"He was solid," Hannibal coach Clint Graham said.
So was his defense.
The Pirates turned two double plays behind Fohey and senior center fielder Ian Hatton made a circus catch in the second inning that robbed QND's Matt Welding of at least a single.
"You always want to play solid defense behind the pitchers and get the outs," Hatton said.
And Hannibal didn't give any outs away.
"They hit some balls hard, but our boys were able to handle them and get outs," Graham said. "That's the most important thing when you play QND. You can't give them extra outs."
QND (7-5) wound up giving some away.
Scoreless through three innings, Hannibal's Colin Krigbaum led off the fourth with an infield single, was sacrificed to second, took third on a groundout and scored on Hatton's line drive that ricochetted off the inside of Welding's left foot.
Then, in the fifth, the Pirates scored six unearned runs after an errant throw on a sacrifice bunt kept the inning alive. Brandon Mundle capped the outburst with a base-clearing double to right-center field, one of Hannibal's four extra-base hits.
"We haven't been scoring a lot of runs lately," Hatton said. "Now it's starting to come together for us. It couldn't have come at a better time than in a big game like this one."
QND rallied with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, but Graham brought in freshman right-hander Paul Trenhaile with one out and the bases loaded and he got out of the threat by allowing only one inherited runner to score.
Trenhaile worked 2 2/3 innings of hitless relief.
"It's promising for us to see him compete against these guys," Graham said. "You feel more confident running him out there next time."
Confidence is critical right now
"You know with this group it will come," Martin said. "Right now, for one reason or another, they're pressing and pressing and it's not happening. But if we keep hitting the ball hard, it will get through and we will break out. It's just a matter time."
-- mschuckman@whig.com/221-3366
