QUINCY — The Quincy Jackrabbits baseball team used good pitching, some timely hits and aggressive baserunning to take both games of a non-league doubleheader from the Royal Knights on Saturday.

Aggressive baserunning resulted in an inside-the-park home run for Quincy pitcher Evander Stephens in the fifth inning of the first game. Stephens took advantage of his hit between first and second base and a couple of Royal fielding miscues.

The crowd was yelling, and so was the Jacks dugout, and in all the excitement the baserunner could lose track of the ball. Stephens said the key is to listen for, and to, the coaches.

“I’m running until my coach says something. There’s a video - you see me stumble at third, and then you hear my coach yelling at me to keep going,” he said. “You’ve just got to be aware of your coaches. They’re really loud.” 

Stephens shut out the Knights for five innings, striking out 10 batters before reliever Caleb Kukes came in to finish the game. 

“We had him restricted to 74 pitches and we wanted him to give us five innings,” said Quincy coach Seth Longwill. “That’s exactly what he did.”

Second-game starter Ashton Barnes-Keller also pitched five shutout innings, striking out 12 Royal hitters. Kukes also finished the second game. 

“A great day for both of them. They’re both throwing really well,” Longwill said. “The main thing is challenging people with your best pitch and being efficient up there on the mound.” 

Royal coach Brandon Jenks paid tribute to Quincy's pitching and said his team is still working on their hitting.

“We have a couple of kids hitting well, and we have a lot that are really struggling. And we don’t have a ton of experience,” he said. 

Royal’s second-game pitchers Ben Jenks and Bryan Larsen each gave up one hit, and Brandon Jenks said the Knights’ pitching is pretty solid.

“I tell the kids that if we make the plays, defensively, that we’re supposed to make, we will be in every game most of the time because our pitching is not bad,” he said. 

However, Quincy challenged on the base paths, and it paid off — in the second game, the Jacks scored five runs on two hits.

“We were being disciplined in our approach, being aggressive but at the same time not trying to help out the pitcher too much,” Longwill said. 

The Jacks did a good job at taking advantage of what was available to them, he said.

“I want to say all of our five runs were with two outs. The kids didn’t give up on an inning,” Longwill said.

Brandon Jenks said the Knights are still working to fit the pieces together.

“When we give them six outs an inning, it makes it pretty hard on everybody. We don’t have the firepower to come back and score 10 runs easily,” he said. “So you have to (stay) close.”

With Royal players still learning, the season will be a little inconsistent, he said.
“We have some good games and we have some pretty ugly ones, but we’re getting better,” he said.

Quincy plays Cashmere in a single game at Cashmere today, the team’s second league game, and a doubleheader with Chelan on Saturday, also league games. Royal plays a doubleheader against Zillah today in Zillah, with another doubleheader, league games against Kiona-Benton on Saturday.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box scores

Game One

ROYL: 0-0-0-0-0-0-2 2

QNCY: 1-0-0-3-4-0-X 8

Game Two

ROYL: 0-0-0-0-0-0-2 2

QNCY: 3-0-0-0-1-1-X 5

    Royal’s Ben Jenks (10) delivers the pitch in a game against Quincy Saturday. Jenks only gave up one hit.
  

    Quincy pitcher Ashton Barnes-Keller (10) pitched five innings and struck out 12 Royal batters.
  

    A Royal baserunner dives back to first in the Knights’ game against Quincy.
  

    The pitch comes in and a Royal hitter starts to swing in Saturday’s Quincy-Royal doubleheader.