BASEBALL: Brening blisters Hornets, Indians win Sectional

Neither a busted blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand nor the Nashville Hornets could get in the way of Levi Brening in Monday's Class 2A Baseball Sectional championship game. The right-hander fanned ten Hornets and allowed just three hits and two walks as the Indians won their thirteenth game in a row, beating Sectional host Nashville 5-2 to advance into Tuesday's Super-Sectional in Sauget.

"You can't say enough about him," said DHS head coach Tim Craft of his hurler. "Nashville's such a good team hitting, to keep them to two runs, and with the finger being a little bit of an issue, he gutted it out. He made good pitch after good pitch, and got some good plays behind him."

Brening, who also pitched in Du Quoin's last two postseason victories, said his thumbnail cut into his middle finger while warming up in the first inning. He briefly left the mound to get it looked at by DHS trainer Tim Davis, but the cut didn't appear to bother Brening for the majority of the game after getting some super glue applied to the area.

"It felt weird because it was glue on top of the skin, so I can't really feel that part of my finger," Brening said, adding "when you have a game going on like this, you're so hyped up the whole time that the adrenaline takes over completely."

Brening and Nashville starter Ryan Brink each had two relatively uneventful innings on the hill to start the game, but in the top of the third, the Indians took advantage of some mistakes to grab the lead.

Ashton Smith drew a leadoff walk, then Cole Hopkins was safe at first on a sacrifice bunt attempt that went for an error on the third baseman. Ethan Keller also tried to move the runners over with a bunt, but placed the ball perfectly down the third base line and beat it out for an infield single to load the bases.

"The kids did such a good job of shortening the game in the third inning, getting bunts down, putting some pressure on them and coming through with some hits," Craft said. "You sacrifice bunt, you're giving an out, and we were fortunate that we were safe at first base getting two really good bunts down."

Jacob Valier made the Hornets pay with an RBI single, and after Hopkins was gunned down at the plate by Nashville center fielder Hayden Heggemeier, A.J. Smith reached on an error to load the bases again. Brening followed with an RBI base hit, then Brock Bullar delivered a sac fly to bring in Valier and make it 3-0 Du Quoin.

"We've got speed at the bottom of our lineup," said A.J. Smith. "(Hopkins) isn't really not a nine-hole hitter, he's more of a second leadoff guy. Him getting on, and Ethan getting on, that was huge."

A.J. Smith would do more damage an inning later against Nashville's second pitcher of the day, Dylan Mueller, crushing a two-run double off the wall to score Hopkins (single) and Keller (single) and give Brening a 5-0 cushion.

"(A.J. Smith) came through big," Craft said. "He's done it both games in the Sectional, big hits, huge hits. We've said it over and over, seniors in games like this come through a lot of times."

Mueller rebounded well, finishing off the game with three and two-thirds innings of two-hit baseball, but the Indians had already done severe damage to the Hornets' chances of advancing.

"The game all starts on the mound, and we weren't very sharp on the mound today," said Nashville coach Chad Malawy. "We walked two and hit three, we didn't play catch very well with the baseball twice, so we gave them free bases. That's probably the biggest difference in the scoreboard."

The Hornets didn't go down without a fight, getting a two-run homer by Jaris Dalman in the fourth, and bringing the tying run to the plate in the sixth, but Brening struck out Cody Bauza to end the threat before retiring the side in order in the bottom of the seventh.

"You've got to tip your hat to Brening," Malawy said. "It's probably the very best he's been all season. We knew he was good, but today he was extra-special."

The blister became an issue for a moment again in the seventh, but Brening powered through it, sending Du Quoin to Sauget on Tuesday.

"The circle change was working pretty nice," said Brening, "which really helped because against a great hitting team like them you have to have off-speed. If you only have one pitch working, they're going to hammer it."

Keller (2-3, 2 R, BB), Valier (2-4, R, RBI), A.J. Smith (1-4, 2 RBI, 2B), Brening (1-3, RBI) and Hopkins (1-3, R) had the Indians' seven hits. Dalman (2-2, R, 2 RBI, HR) and Daniel Thorson (1-2, R, 2B, BB) had hits for Nashville.

Right-hander Jacob Valier will take the mound for the Indians (26-10) on Tuesday against Teutopolis. The Wooden Shoes advanced to the Super-Sectional with Monday's victory over Althoff (Belleville). The winner gets a trip to Peoria for the State Final Tournament beginning on Friday, June 5.