Matthew Quimby led the charge from the mound Saturday for the Escambia County Blue Devils in their first game of a doubleheader against the B.C. Rain Raiders.

Quimby struggled early in the game giving up five runs through the third inning, but rebounded to hold B.C. Rain off of the scoreboard in his remaining innings to help ECHS  (2-16, 2-7) earn a 16-6 win.

Finding a rhythm was important for Quimby to get back on track after falling behind, Blue Devils head baseball coach Andy Lambert said.

“Matthew does a good job of spotting his fastball,” he said. “He struggled getting ahead of batters in that one bad inning, but once he got settled down and ahead in the counts, he was able to just keep the game in his control.”

The Raiders jumped on top of the Blue Devils 4-0 heading to the bottom of the second, but the gap closed in the bottom of the inning with A.J. Matthews (1-for-3, 3R) and Ricky Reed (1-for-1, 4R) crossed the plate.

In the third inning, the teams traded runs with Winson Barron (1-for-3, 2R) scoring for ECHS to make the score 5-3.

Quimby shut the Raiders down in his final inning of work to open the door for a five-run fourth inning. In the inning, Reed, Malcolm Black (1-for-3, R), Barron, Justin Davis (0-for-2, R) and Quimby (1-for-3, R) crossed the plate to put ECHS out in front 8-5.

Barron was called into relieve Quimby and allowed only one run, which came in the fifth inning.

Leading 10-6, the Blue Devils packed on eight more runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings with Tyler Sanspree (1-for-3, R), Gage White (0-for-2, R), Imani Gray (2-for-4, 2R), Matthews and Reed all scoring to end the game on a 10-run rule.

With win No. 2 behind them, Lambert pointed out his team’s ability to get big hits when they were needed as a reason for the win.

“For some reason, we seem to keep spotting our opponents runs, but our kids kept their poise and battled back into it,” he said. “Our bats really came alive and we ended up scoring 16 runs, which is a lot for us to put on the board. That was the big key, our ability to score runs.”

The Blue Devils next game will be Thursday on the road against the Flomaton Hurricanes. Games begin at 4 p.m. with the junior varsity.

B.C. Rain 10, ECHS, 9
Big runs early in the game were the difference, as the Blue Devils trailed early and could not catch up to B.C. Rain in their second game of Saturday’s doubleheader in Atmore.

The Blue Devils fell behind 5-0 in the second inning and could not fully recover from a run in the final inning, as the Raiders picked up the win 10-9.

The early deficit mixed with bad defense were a combination that hurt the team, Lambert said.

“We fell behind again, but we were unable to hit the ball as well as the other game,” he said. “It was a much sloppier game for us defensively. We fought back to tie the game heading into the final inning, but they scored in the seventh and we were unable to rally.”

Winston Barron (1-for-3, 2R), Tyler Sanspree (2-for-3, 2R) and Ricky Reed (1-for-3, 2R) were the offensive leaders in the Blue Devils’ loss.