BASEBALL: Warriors finish regular season strong by beating Nashville

The Warriors wrapped up their baseball regular season with a win on Tuesday at home, knocking off Nashville 9-4. Eight of the nine starters for Du Quoin had hits and Owen Bradley was phenomenal in relief, giving up just one hits over two and two-thirds innings while striking out four.

"I don't think we had our best defensive game, but we made the plays when we needed to," said DMS head coach Tim Craft. "We had a great start from A.J. Rice but didn't make some plays behind him. Owen Bradley did a great job finishing the game."

It looked like the Warriors might run away with the game in the bottom of the first with a four-run rally. Brian Winters singled to start it off and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Zimmerman. Braden Pursell and Bradley both singled, Konnor Harris walked, and Trae Horn drove in two with a two-out double.

The Du Quoin offense cooled off over the course of the next three innings, though, allowing the Hornets to chip away with a run in each of the next four innings, including and unearned tally in the fourth.

The Warriors heated up again in the fifth, getting a double from Zimmerman and an RBI base hit by Pursell, then scored four times in the sixth with hits by Bradley (triple), Harris (RBI double) and Zimmerman.

"We started off fast with our bats and then kind of went through a lull," Craft said. "It was good to see us take and extend the lead in the last couple of innings."

Winters (1-4, 2 R), Zimmerman (2-3, R, RBI, 2B, SAC), Pursell (2-4, R, RBI), Bradley (2-3, R, 3B), Harris (1-2, R, RBI, 2B, BB), Horn (1-3, 2 RBI, 2B), Slade West (1-3, BB) and Nick Depyatic (1-2, R, BB) each had hits for Du Quoin.

The Warriors begin Regional action on Wednesday at home, taking on Johnston City at 4 p.m. The winner gets either Benton or West Frankfort this Saturday at 10 a.m. in Du Quoin.