BASEBALL: Brening's arm, Indians' bats bury Benton
With the smoke still pouring off their bats from a semifinal win over West Frankfort, Du Quoin kept their hot streak - and their season - alive with a 5-1 win in Saturday's Class 2A Baseball Regional championship, avenging a pair of losses earlier in the year to top-seeded Benton for their eleventh consecutive victory.
The first four Indians in the lineup each had a pair of hits and Ashton Smith had three singles while starting pitcher Levi Brening mowed down the Rangers on the mound for his second win this postseason.
"We've hit the ball, for the most part, all year," said DHS head coach Tim Craft. "We've struggled sometimes to find pitching, sometimes struggled to find defense behind them. Right now through this stretch we've kind of put it all together at once and got it going."
"We know when (Brening) is out there we've got a good shot at competing with just about anybody. The good thing is he doesn't walk many batters, and that plays to his advantage when he pitches down in the zone and gets some ground balls. His defense did a great job behind him fielding the ball. They had some tough plays and they made them. He's just done a great job working ahead in counts."
Brening, who crushed a 415-foot home run against West Frankfort in the semifinal round, allowed one earned run on just four hits against Benton. He walked two and struck out one, adding a 2-for-3 showing at the dish on offense.
"We're hot right now, we just want to keep it going," said Brening. "If we can keep the pitching and defense going, we can get some things done for sure."
The Indians wasted no time in putting the pressure on the Rangers. Du Quoin put two runs on the board against Benton starter Gus Gibbs in the top of the first inning with hits from Jacob Valier (double), A.J. Smith (single) and Brening (RBI single). Benton halved the lead in the bottom of the second when Gibbs doubled then scored on a fielder's choice RBI by Cole Richardson, but then went hitless until the sixth inning.
The Indians failed to score after loading the bases in the fifth, but got some crucial two-out hits in the sixth to tack on some insurance. Seniors Ethan Keller and Valier both singled with two down to give Du Quoin a 4-1 lead.
"This time of year seniors are always big to your program," Craft said. "You want seniors up at the plate, and they came through in some big moments."
Ashton Smith delivered an RBI single in the top of the seventh for DHS, making it 5-1.
"It gives you cushion," Brening said of the extra runs he was given to work with. "As a pitcher you're constantly worried about giving up a run. We call it pitching with a lead, we love to do that, we pound the zone. If we get a lead, if we get a cushion, we can relax and just throw."
Brening gave up a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh, but after getting a strikeout, he induced a ground ball up the middle that A.J. Smith made a play on, tossing to Keller at the second base bag to start a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.
Brening was shook up briefly after attempting a diving grab and throw on Richardson's infield single in the seventh. He was icing his left, non-throwing arm following the game, but when asked if there was a possibility he'd miss Wednesday's Sectional semifinal, the right-hander answered - "Oh no, not a chance."
Keller (2-4, RBI, 2B), Valier (2-4, R, RBI), A.J. Smith (2-4, R), Brening (2-3, RBI, BB), Ashton Smith (3-4, RBI), Ryne O'Rourke (1-4) and Cole Hopkins (1-3, R) accounted for Du Quoin's 13 hits against Benton.
Gibbs (1-3, R, 2B), Richardson (1-3, RBI), Dillan Chamness (1-3) and Martin Ward (1-3) had hits for the Rangers.
The Indians (24-10) now move on to Wednesday's 4:30 p.m. Sectional semifinal at Nashville where they will take on Harrisburg. Carmi-White County and Nashville meet in the other semifinal on Thursday. Winners match up in Saturday's championship at 11:00 a.m.
"They're a group that I've been around since they were seventh graders," Craft said of his team. "Watching them improve day-to-day, seeing how far they've come from the third or fourth week of the season to this point. We knew it was there, we just had to put it all together."