BASEBALL: Walks burn Panthers in 11-4 loss to Indians
Monday's varsity baseball contest between cross-county rivals Du Quoin and Pinckneyville was tied at 4-4 at the midway point, but the Indians took advantage of eight walks issued by Panther pitching and exploded for a five-run sixth to turn the game into an 11-4 rout for the home team.
Du Quoin's A.J. Smith drove in four runs and Jacob Valier (3-1) tossed a complete game for the Indians, who won the crucial battle between a pair of teams that both entered the day at 2-2 in conference play.
"A.J. came through with a couple big hits for us," said DHS head coach Tim Craft. "It would have been nice in the fourth inning if we would have fielded the ball behind Jacob and taken some stress off of him, but he did a great job pitching. It was nice to expand that lead and get him some breathing room there at the end."
For the Panthers, head coach Gabe Shepard said the free passes given out by his pitchers was inexcusable.
"We've got to throw strikes," said Shepard. "That's been our biggest problem all year long. We gave up eight hits and they scored eleven runs. You can't give up more runs than you give up hits. You've got to throw strikes to get people out, that's the bottom line."
The Indians led 1-0 after Ethan Keller walked and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first inning, then the Panthers tied it up in the top of the third on back-to-back doubles by Jackson Brand and Tyler Rulevish.
Du Quoin grabbed the lead again in the bottom of the third when Valier reached on a fielder's choice to bring in Cole Hopkins (walk). The Indians added two more runs that inning on Smith's two-run double, and led 4-1.
Pinckneyville answered back in the top of the fourth with a three-run rally of their own. Clayton Houghland had an RBI single and two more runs crossed the plate when Brand reached on an error, and things were tied up again at 4-4.
The Indians kept coming, however, while Valier shut the Panthers down the rest of the way.
Three walks and two hit batters led to two Du Quoin runs in the fourth, and two more walks set the table for the big five-run sixth for the Indians where Smith (two-run triple), Brock Bullar (double), Braden Lee (single) and Ryne O'Rourke (ground-out) padded the lead with RBIs.
"We scored three runs to tie it up, then turn around and walk the first two batters in the next inning," Shepard said. "That's not a very good recipe for success right there at all. (Leadoff walks) will come back to bite you every single time."
Valier retired ten of the last eleven batters he saw and finished the day with two earned runs allowed on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts. Justin Bauersachs took the loss for PCHS, going three-plus innings and allowing four hits and four walks with one punch-out.
Keller (1-1, 3 R, RBI, 3 BB), Valier (1-2, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB), Smith (2-4, R, 4 RBI, 2B, 3B), Bullar (1-3, R, RBI, 2B, BB), Lee (1-3, RBI, HBP), O'Rourke (1-3, R, RBI, 2B, BB) and Levi Brening (1-4, R) had hits for Du Quoin.
The Panthers got hits from Rulevish (1-4, RBI, 2B), Houghland (1-2, R, RBI), Brand (1-3, R, 2B), Trent Hicks (2-3, R) and Miles Chandler (1-3, R).
"It's a big step for us to get back on the plus side in the win column (in conference play)," Craft said. "If we keep taking care of business and just worry about ourselves, we're going to be ok."
The Indians (9-6, 3-2) travel to Sparta on Tuesday.
The Panthers (7-10, 2-3) will get an opportunity to get back in the conference race this week with games against Anna-Jonesboro (at home on Tuesday) and Nashville (at home on Wednesday, at Nashville on Thursday).
"This was a perfect opportunity for us to jump out and cement ourselves into the middle of the conference race," Shepard said. "The next three games are huge, this whole week is huge as far as the conference goes. We can either put ourselves right back in the middle of it, or throw ourselves right out of it the next three days."