BASEBALL: Indians conquer Spartans, 17-4 in five innings

Posted May 02, 2015 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

The Indians got RBIs from each of the top eight spots in the lineup and put a 17-4 whipping on Waltonville in five innings on Thursday at The Ballpark at Du Quoin High School.

DHS took advantage of seven walks issued by Spartans pitching and cranked out fourteen hits, three of them by Brock Bullar, who drove in four runs. Braden Lee and Hank Stewart combined to handle the pitching duties for the Indians. Lee got the win with four innings pitched, two earned runs allowed on five hits with one strikeout and one hit batter.

"(Waltonville) put some runners on base, but the kids came out and swung the bats," said Du Quoin head baseball coach Tim Craft. "Braden gave us four strong innings, kind of battled through a tough inning, but gave us a chance to win."

Bullar drove in the game's first two runs in the bottom of the first on a single to bring in A.J. Smith (error) and Levi Brening (double). Du Quoin added to their lead with seven more runs in the second inning, getting RBI hits from Lee (two-run single), Ryne O'Rourke (single) and Ashton Smith (single).

The Spartans picked up two earned runs as well as two unearned runs in the third to keep it interesting at 9-4, but Du Quoin put it away with a snowman in the bottom of the fourth. Ethan Keller (bases-loaded walk), Jacob Valier (sacrifice fly), A.J. Smith (single), Brening (double), Bullar (two-run single) and O'Rourke (double) each had RBIs in the Indians' put-away frame.

Valier (1-3, R, RBI, SAC), A.J. Smith (1-2, 3 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB), Brening (2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 2B, SAC), Bullar (3-4, 4 RBI), Lee (2-2, 2 RBI, BB, HBP), O'Rourke (2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2B, BB), Ashton Smith (2-4, R, RBI) and Cole Hopkins (1-2, R, BB) all had hits for DHS.

The Indians (14-10, 6-3) will wrap up a stretch of eleven games in twelve days on Friday at home against Anna-Jonesboro, wrapping up Du Quoin's SIRR Mississippi Division schedule.

"The good thing about a day like today is that we only went through two guys (on the mound) and should have two or three ready for tomorrow in case we need it," Craft said. "It's a big game for us. I don't know where it's going to put us in the conference but having the opportunity to go 7-3 in our conference is a good thing."