SOFTBALL: Lady Indians sweep DH from Waltonville-S-V
With weather wiping out the Marissa Tournament, two teams scheduled to participate in that event wound up playing a doubleheader on Saturday morning at Du Quoin with the Lady Indians sweeping Waltonville-Sesser-Valier 5-3 and 9-0 to extend their winning streak to four games.
"Both (Marisa) Ferguson and (Mackenzie) Jackson pitched very well for us today," said DHS head softball coach Jason James. "We played solid defense behind both pitchers and we are improving at the plate. The girls have been working extremely hard on their hitting, we have tweaked a few swings and I thought it showed by how hard we were hitting the ball. The girls are starting to gain some confidence and that's what we need going down the stretch."
Game one saw Waltonville jump out to a 1-0 lead on a solo homer by Hannah Witter in the top of the first inning against Ferguson.
Du Quoin took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the third, getting RBIs from Jordyn Bullar (double) and Ferguson (single) and taking advantage of a couple Lady Spartans errors.
Waltonville chipped away an unearned run in the fourth and tied it up with a walk from Witter and a double by Taylor Frank in the top of the sixth, but the Lady Indians would have the last laugh in the bottom of the sixth.
Afton Robinson singled with one out, Alaina Caldwell reached on an error, and with two down, Timbra Mansfield singled in both runs to give Du Quoin the lead, and eventually the victory.
W-S-V put the tying run on base in the seventh, but Ferguson escaped the jam. She finished with two earned runs allowed on five hits and three walks with ten K's.
Offensively for DHS, Bullar (1-3, R, RBI, 2B), Ferguson (1-3, RBI), Robinson (1-3), Caldwell (1-3, R, 3B) and Mansfield (1-3, 2 RBI) had hits in game one.
Game two was never in doubt. Jackson was brilliant in the circle and started the bottom of the first with a leadoff homer to give herself all the run support she would need.
The Lady Indians put it away quick with four runs in the second inning with the big hit coming from Ferguson, a two-out RBI double.
Jackson (1-4, R, RBI, HR), Ferguson (1-3, RBI, 2B), Robinson (1-3), Caldwell (1-2, 2 R, BB), Mansfield (2-3), Tarynn Mays (1-1), Hannah Marek (2-2, R), Emily Born (1-1, RBI) and Amber Williams (1-2, R, RBI, BB) hit safely for Du Quoin in the second game.
Du Quoin (16-14) is at Murphysboro on Monday, Carlyle on Tuesday, and at Harrisburg on Saturday for a round-robin tournament.
The Lady Indians host their own Class 2A Regional beginning Monday, May 18. Fourth-seeded DHS hosts fifth-seeded Z-R-C at 4:30 p.m. for the right to move on to Tuesday's semifinal against top-seeded Pinckneyville. West Frankfort and Waltonville have the other semifinal on Wednesday afternoon.