SOFTBALL: Errors, lack of offense lead to DMS's exit
Too many mistakes and not enough offense led to the Lady Warriors' exit from the SIJHSAA Class L Regional in Monday's championship against Johnston City, as the Lady Indians won 10-1 with the help of eight unearned runs against Du Quoin starting pitcher Chloe Hill.
By the end of the second inning, Johnston City was already up 7-0 as DMS struggled in the field with five errors before getting six outs. The Lady Warriors committed seven errors in the game.
"To me, that's the difference in the ball game," said Du Quoin head coach Jason James. "In a big game, they made every play and we didn't. We ended up with seven errors, and that's not going to win you too many ball games. They did a good job of capitalizing on them, every mistake we had, they would score two or three runs and they put it out of reach."
Johnston City hurler Alexandria King was, as usual, dominant in the pitching circle, allowing no earned runs, five hits, two walks and a hit batter while registering eight strikeouts.
"We only struck out eight times against (King)," James said, "usually it's twelve or thirteen, so we did put the ball in play a little bit better, but they caught the hard balls that we hit and when we did get the bases loaded (in the fifth inning) that's when they got the big strikeout."
Taylor Crompton doubled for an RBI in the bottom of the first to give the Lady Indians the lead and would later score on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch to make it 2-0.
In the bottom of the second, Johnston City broke the game open with five runs - none of them earned. Three DMS errors and a walk to King allowed singles by Abbey Bennett, Maggie Coloni and Jacqueline Casey to add to the damage.
Morgan Andrews tripled with one out in the bottom of the third inning and came in on Madison Weber's RBI base hit, and Du Quoin trailed 8-0 before finally getting on the board in the top of the fourth when Arrah Barwick singled, advanced on a wild pitch, and later scored on an error.
The Lady Indians tacked on another unearned tally in the fourth, then Andrews smacked a homer over the right field wall to put an exclamation point on her 3-for-4 (4 R, RBI, 3B, HR) day at the plate.
Weber (1-4, RBI), Crompton (1-4, 2 R, RBI, 2B), Bennett (2-3, 2 R, BB), Coloni (1-3, 3 RBI, HBP) and Casey (3-4) had the rest of Johnston City's eleven hits.
Barwick (2-3, R), Katie Smith (1-4), Maci Mckinnies (1-4) and Chloe Hess (1-2) had hits for Du Quoin. Morgan Bullar was 0-for-1, but walked twice. Avery Waller reached base with a hit-by-pitch in the second.
Hill finished the day with eleven hits, four walks and a hit batter allowed, striking out five.
The loss ends DMS's season with a 20-5 overall record.
"I'm excited with the season," James said. "We've come a long way from being 4-3 to being 20-5. We were able to win a conference championship, and to give yourself an opportunity to play for a Regional championship is a big plus for them, it shows how hard they worked. I'm very proud of that group of girls."