Quitman High School scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to erase a 2-0 deficit then walked off a 4-3 victory over fellow district 1B member Doyline to advance to the LHSAA Division V quarterfinals in baseball.

The stirring come from behind victory improves the 5th seeded Wolverines season record to 17-10 while #12 Doyline ends the season with a 14-14 mark. Quitman now travels to face #4 Stanley for a quarterfinal contest slated to be played at 5:00 pm on Wednesday, May 1st. 

One of the oldest adages in sports is that it is very hard to beat a team three times in one season and for 5 1/2 innings it looked like this was going to hold true. Doyline opened the contest played at Quitman by taking a quick 2-0 lead in their first at bat.

The early lead staked by the Panthers, who Quitman had already beaten in district 1B play by  7-1 and 3-1 scores at the beginning of the month, had Wolverine head coach Joe Lockhart concerned. 

“I wasn’t happy that we were having to play Doyline again as we knew they had a good pitcher in Spears,” said Lockhart. 

For the first five innings, Quitman put a runner get on base, with Kace West singling in the first, Pete Simonelli walking in the second,  Logan Ponder hitting a double in the third, Riley Duck singling in the fourth and Braden Hobbs hitting a single in the fifth inning but Spears managed to keep the Wolverines from scoring.

In the meantime, Quitman pitcher Ian Tilley kept the Wolverines close by keeping Doyline from scoring anymore allowing the Quitman offense to finally get untracked, which Lockhart expected his team to do. 

“I had faith that we would eventually get going as we had worked all week on facing high velocity and our guys had responded well,” said Lockhart. “It took a little longer than I would have liked but we came through.”

Ponder got hit by a pitch to get the rally started, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored Quitman’s first run when Riley Duck hit a one-out single, his second hit of the day. John Raegan Hasley then hit a grounder to third that forced Duck at second. Pete Simonelli kept the inning alive with a single setting up the biggest hit in Jake Pott’s career.

Having only 27 at bats this season in 14 games played, Potts was called on to pinch hit with two hits. The junior responded with a clutch single to center field on the first pitch he saw that scored two and give Quitman a 3-2 lead. 

“That was big to say the least,” said Lockhart. “Jake has done well for us all year when given the chance so I felt good about him being at the plate.”

It looked like Ponder, who relieved Tilley in the middle of the fourth inning, would pitch Quitman to victory but Doyline managed to tie the score when a grounder was booted with two outs that knotted the game at 3-3.  Undaunted, Quitman put the game away in their final at bat when Hudson Pullig singled then scored on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Kace West.  

“I am really proud of the way we played,” said Lockhart. “We have been in tight games all year so facing adversity was nothing new for the guys and they responded as they have all season.”