BASEBALL: Indians come back to beat Sparta for 4th straight win
A week ago, Du Quoin baseball was sitting at the .500 mark at 6-6 with just one win in conference play. After Tuesday's 15-5 comeback win over Sparta, the Indians are right in the thick of things in the SIRR Mississippi Division at 4-2, as Jordan Edwards came on in relief for five and a third stellar innings on the mound to allow the offense to take care of business against the Bulldogs.
"Jordan Edwards came up huge for us today in relief," said DHS head coach Tim Craft. "To come in down 3-0 and give us a chance to start hitting was huge. We had some great at bats as the game went on and got some great contributions from our entire roster."
With one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning, Indians center fielder Levi Brening made a tremendous play tracking down a fly ball and firing back in to shortstop A.J. Smith at the second base bag to double off Sparta's Seth Ferguson to allow starting pitcher Dalton Day to escape without any damange.
"If (Brening) doesn't make that play we are down 3-0 in the first inning," Craft said.
That means it could have been 7-0 after two, because the Bulldogs capitalized on three walks and three hits to score four in the bottom of the second against Day, who exited in favor of Edwards after the third free pass of the inning.
It was still 4-0 Bulldogs in the top of the fourth when the comeback began for Du Quoin. Brening was hit by a pitch, Brock Bullar singled, then Braden Lee drove in Brening with a base hit. Ryne O'Rourke reached on an error one batter later, and Ethan Keller did the same with two outs, and suddenly the game was tied at 4-4.
The Bulldogs had a pair of singles in the bottom of the fourth to scratch out a run against Edwards and make it 5-4, but the Indian right-hander slammed the door shut over the final three innings and finished with one earned run allowed on two hits and six walks with nine strikeouts.
That gave Du Quoin's offense all the opportunity they would need. Two more Sparta errors and singles by Brening, Lee, Jacob Valier (RBI) and A.J. Smith led to a five-run fifth for the Indians.
It didn't stop there. A walk, two batters hit by pitches and RBIs from Cole Hopkins (single) and Valier (ground-out) added up to four Indian runs in the sixth, then Tevin Martin (ground-out) and O'Rourke (sacrifice fly) padded the lead with RBIs in the seventh inning.
Valier (3-5, 2 RBI, 2B), Smith (1-5), Brening (1-4, 3 R, HBP), Bullar (2-3, 3 R, BB), Lee (2-2, 2 R, RBI, 2 HBP) and Hopkins (2-4, R, RBI, 2B) hit safely for Du Quoin in the victory.
Du Quoin (10-6, 4-2) hosts Steeleville on Wednesday before resuming Mississippi Division action on Friday at Anna-Jonesboro.