BASEBALL: Offense stays hot for Indians vs. Trico
Trico was in charge of Friday's varsity baseball matchup with Du Quoin 2-0 when lightning struck in the area to force a delay, and when the weather calmed down and play resumed, it was the Indians who came out of the break looking like a different team. Starter Levi Brening didn't allow a hit after the second inning and every Indians starter reached base at least once as Du Quoin finished off the Pioneers 9-2 at the Ballpark at DHS.
"The balls they did hit weren't shots, they were kind of off the end of the bat and where we weren't," said Du Quoin head coach Tim Craft. "(Brening) settled in and kind of let his defense play behind him and made some good pitches."
Since losing to Benton on April 29, Du Quoin has won four straight games. A lot of that success can be attributed to the offense heating up, in particular guys near the bottom of the order.
"Right now the way some of these guys are swinging, if somebody has an off day in the lineup, there's somebody right behind them that's still hitting," said Craft. "If we can find a way to get on base, we can usually find a way to score some runs."
Brening gave up three singles, a walk and a sacrifice in the top of the first to allow Trico to take a 2-0 lead before the lightning delay.
After play resumed, the score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the third when A.J. Smith (single) and Brening (double) delivered RBIs to tie things up for the Indians.
Ryne O'Rrourke gave DHS the lead in the fourth, belting a two-run homer to left to bring in Braden Lee (single). Ashton Smith followed with a single before later scoring on Ethan Keller's base hit to make it 5-2.
"Ryne has been driving the ball," said Craft, "staying short with his swing, swinging at good pitches, taking advantage of getting ahead in counts and jumping on fastballs. We tell Ashton to try and keep it simple, hit strikes, and he's doing a good job. I can't say enough about what he's brought to the team."
The Indians capitalized on three walks and three hit batters in the last two innings to add on extra runs. A.J. Smith contributed an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.
Keller (1-3, RBI, SAC), A.J. Smith (3-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB), Brening (1-2, RBI, 2B, 2 HBP), Lee (1-3, R, BB), O'Rourke (1-3, R, 2 RBI, HR), Ashton Smith (1-2, 2 R, BB), Brock Bullar (1-4) and Cole Hopkins (1-2, 2 R, BB) had hits for the Indians.
Brening gave up two earned runs on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts on the mound.
Du Quoin (17-10, 7-3) travels to Murphysboro on Monday and Carlyle on Tuesday before closing out the regular season at home on Wednesday against Z-R-C.
The Indians will host their Class 2A Regional beginning on Monday, May 18. Third-seeded DHS will meet sixth-seeded Pinckneyville at 4:30 p.m. for the right to advance to Thursday's 4:30 p.m. semifinal against No. 2 seed West Frankfort.