BASEBALL: Rangers capitalize on Indians' mistakes in 13-5 beating
It was the first game of the baseball season, and it looked like it - especially for the Du Quoin Indians. Benton whipped DHS 13-5 at The Ballpark on Monday, taking advantage of seven Du Quoin errors and smacking out a dozen hits in the lopsided affair.
"We just didn't play real well," said Indians head coach Tim Craft. "It's not just one spot, it was across the outfield, we missed some ground balls, missed a pop-up on the infield. You square up with them in hits, and you look up and there's a giant crooked letter on the errors, it's going to be hard to overcome."
Both starting pitchers, Du Quoin's A.J. Smith and Benton's Dakota Head, were cruising along until the top of the third when the Indians' defense began to fall apart.
Two errors - and a missed fly ball ruled a hit because it wasn't touched - followed by RBI singles from Head and Martin Ward made it 3-0 Benton on three unearned runs against Smith.
"(The errors) didn't help A.J.," Craft said. "He was trying to help them keep their composure and trying to keep everything together, but he can only do so much. We've still got to field the ball behind our pitchers. We just didn't do it today."
Derek Oxford and Brandon Cook had hits in the fourth for the Rangers' fourth run of the day, and two more Du Quoin errors in the fifth inning led to Benton moving ahead 8-0. Cole Richardson's RBI double was also a big part of the Rangers' four-run fifth.
Du Quoin's damage came mostly after the game was decided. Cole Hopkins, Jacob Valier and Brock Bullar all singled in the bottom of the sixth for the Indians, which, if nothing else, forced the Rangers to take the field for the seventh inning.
Valier (2-4, R), Smith (1-1, RBI, 3 BB), Bullar (1-4, RBI), Hopkins (2-4, 2 R, RBI), Ethan Keller (1-5), Levi Brening (1-3, BB) and Braden Lee (1-3, R, BB) each had hits for the Indians.
Oxford was 3-for-3 (2 R, 2 2B, HBP) for the Rangers, who also got two hits apiece from Head (2-4, 3 R, RBI, 2B, BB), Ward (2-5, 2 R, RBI) and Caleb Kearney (2-4).
Du Quoin travels to Herrin on Saturday for a doubleheader beginning at 11:00 a.m.
"We've got four days to try and figure out what went wrong and try to fix it," said Craft.