Special Thanks to the Argus/Dispatch

QUINCY -- It was a perfect day for baseball at the QHS field, with a strong wind to right field, sunshine, and blue skies.

It turned out to be perfect ingredients for a Rock Island sweep of Quincy in the Western Big 6 Conference twinbill.

Rock Island brought its offense and held Quincy to just six runs on 10 hits in two games as the Rocks posted 13-3 and 5-3 victories.

The wins allowed the 21-10 Rocks to finish the Big 6 season at 5-5, good for fourth place in the league. Quincy (13-10, 3-5) wraps up its conference season on the road Wednesday at Moline.

``Finishing .500 in the conference gives us momentum for a run in the postseason,'' said Rocky coach Andy Campbell. ``We play good baseball and if you play good baseball this late in the season, you will succeed.''

The Rocks definitely enjoyed success against the Blue Devils team, who'd played tough in league games. However, Quincy ran into a buzzsaw in Rock Island's Game 2 pitcher, Tom DeBroeck, who was nearly unhittable.

DeBroeck retired the first eight Quincy batters in order. His only blemish in four innings of work was Kory Hollensteiner's infield single to the shortstop.

``My stuff was on today,'' DeBroeck said. ``My fastball and curveball got over for strikes. I threw a lot of ground balls and my infield did the rest.''

Bret Gadient pitched two innings and Drew Dasso finished up in the seventh.

The Rocks, who rallied for the victory in the opener, didn't waste any time roughing up Quincy starter Travis Cooley in the nightcap. Grant Snyder ripped a three-run, first-inning homer over the right-center field fence.

Rock Island scored two more in the second on RBIs from Snyder and Kirk Rylander and the Rocks' offense kept on scoring, posting eight runs over the final five innings.

``We couldn't get over the first game,'' said QHS coach Randy Mettemeyer. ``You could see the disappointment in their faces because they were out of the conference race.''

It took a late Rocky rally, though, to get to that point in the opener after the guests got on the board first.

Quincy starting pitcher Robby Young logged two solid innings, but ran into trouble in the third. He gave up a leadoff single to Zach Norris. One out later, with Norris standing on second, Rylander smacked a double to score Norris and give the Rocks the lead.

A Bryce Bushmeyer error allowed Rylander to score and give Rock Island a 2-0 advantage. Quincy responded with an RBI double from Phillip Matta to cut the lead in half, but Rock Island scored another run in the fourth. Chris McFarland scored on a Chase Stephens double to put the Rocks up 3-1.

The Blue Devils tied the game at three in the fifth inning. Hollensteiner led off by belting a double to the wall and scored on Young's double. Matta plated Young with another double to give Quincy the momentum.

Young responded. He retired the next six Rocky batters, only throwing eight pitches.

But the momentum fell away in the seventh. Young dropped a pop fly from Stephens that allowed the go-ahead run to reach base. After a sacrifice from Norris, Snyder tripled in Stephens with a drive over Hollensteiner's head. Snyder scored an insurance run on Rylander's sacrifice fly to put the Rocks up 5-3.

``We don't give up,'' said Campbell. ``We always are fighting. That is what makes this team special.''

The Blue Devils threatened in the bottom of the inning with two on and two out, but Stephens fanned David Foster to end the rally. Stephens moved his record to 5-1 as he allowed just five hits, the three earned runs and walked two, while striking out 10.

``We just aren't hitting,'' said Mettemeyer. ``Our pitching and defense are solid, but our bats are quiet. We need to improve our offense if we want to make a run in postseason.

``We battled the entire game and came back, but fell short. Sometimes the breaks go your way, but today they didn't.''