SOFTBALL: Nashville extends Du Quoin's slump

Du Quoin's offensive drought continued on Tuesday in Nashville, as the Lady Indians ran their scoreless innings streak to 23, falling 6-0 to the state's top-ranked Class 2A team.

Hornettes hurler Maci Ingram again dazzled DHS's hitters, striking out eleven and giving up just three hits without walking anyone. The lefty even had a perfect game going through fourteen batters until Bailie Caldwell's double in the top of the fifth.

"We are just having a hard time putting some hits together," said Du Quoin head coach Jason James. "We did a better job of making contact off Ingram."

The Lady Indians did put more balls in play than in their meeting with Nashville back in April when they fanned a season-high 19 times against Ingram.

Another tidbit of positive news for the Lady Indians - Katrina Whitley extended her hitting streak to eight games with a single in the seventh inning. In that span, the Du Quoin catcher is hitting .654 (17-for-26) with 10 runs scored, 9 runs batted in and 3 home runs.

As for the rest of the game, Nashville was in control after getting a pair of unearned runs against DHS's Marisa Ferguson in the bottom of the third. Two Lady Indians errors and three base hits led to a 2-0 Hornettes lead.

Kiley Pelker added a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to make it 4-0 before Nashville padded their lead with two more in the sixth.

Whitley (1-3), Ferguson (1-3) and Caldwell (1-3, 2B) had hits for Du Quoin. Ferguson allowed two earned runs on eight hits and three walks and struck out one.

The Lady Indians (18-14, 5-5) are now off until Monday's home game against Murphysboro.

"We have some down time here to try to get things worked out before we play Murphy on Monday," said James. "I know these kids will put the time in and give their best effort and that's all I can ask."

Du Quoin also learned that they will be the number two seed in the Zeigler-Royalton Class 2A Regional later this month. Conference mate Pinckneyville drew the top seed in a bracket that will also include West Frankfort (#3), Z-R-C (#4), Benton (#5) and Waltonville (#6).