BY JOSH HOUCHINS

Herald-Whig Sports Writer

A 13-minute fireworks display never erupts over a baseball diamond while a game is in progress.

But when Danville visited the Quincy Gems Tuesday night, anything was possible.

A power failure in the bottom of the 10th inning with Quincy threatening with two on and a two-out, 2-1 count to Alex Acheson made QU-Stadium pitch-black, resulting in a 22-minute delay.

The Gems management pleased the fans by holding the entire postgame fireworks display with the game on hold.

Following the delay, Quincy's Oliver Palmer pulled a two-out double down the third base line in the bottom of the 11th to score Andy Petz all the way from first to ultimately give the Gems a 4-3 win.

"This is absolutely the weirdest thing I have ever been apart of," Palmer said. "I told someone in the dugout it was almost like we were in the Twilight Zone."

Quincy manager Chris Martin was just as confused.

"I have been in a lot of odd games, but nothing quite like this," Martin said. "Maybe the lights going out was the best thing that could have happened all week."

Quincy (9-12), which has won 2 of 3 following a six-game losing streak, used the game disturbance to its advantage.

"Maybe the fireworks got us off of things and got us fired up," said reliever Kevin Lee, who tossed three scoreless innings to earn the win. "Maybe we even needed that."

Danville (8-11) scored first off RBI singles from Brooks Kimmey and Jon Lilly. Kimmey added a run-scoring ground out in the second to put the Dans up 3-0.

The Gems finally got the offense going in the seventh, when Shepherd Tate relieved Danville starter Matt Bywater, who took a seat after allowing only one hit on a mere 67 pitches.

Kurtis Muller reached on an error and stole second and third before scoring on a wild pitch to cut the Quincy deficit to 3-1. Jon Myers made it a 3-2 game, scoring on a single to right by Thomas McCormick.

"We'd hit a lot of balls hard but they'd just be right at someone," said Petz, who drove in the game-tying run in the ninth with a two-out single to center. "We finally got a little luck late and it paid off."

Lee's second inning of work got the Gems out of huge trouble as Danville loaded the bases in the top of the 10th with none out.

Consecutive fielder's choice groundouts from Myers at shortstop to Petz at home plate left the bases jammed with two outs. Lee struck out David Worthington to end the inning.

In the Quincy 11th, Petz drew a one-out walk and Acheson lined out to center, leaving Palmer with the chance to deliver the game-winning hit.

"I was struggling earlier in the game," Palmer said. "But I told myself to just keep my head up and my time will come. I knew it may fall on my shoulders again and I was lucky enough to get a good pitch to hit."

And Martin wasn't about to stop Petz, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound catcher.

"He wasn't stopping," Martin said. "They were going to have to make a good relay throw and then throw him out. I wasn't stopping him."

The Gems will wrap up fireworks nights on Thursday and Friday with two more games with the Dans. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m. both nights.

-- sports@whig.com/221-3365