Lady Indians beat Red Bud in regional semifinal
CHESTER - The Du Quoin High School softball team scored first and last Tuesday to beat Red Bud, 5-3, in the semifinals of the Chester 2A Regional at the Cohen Complex.
Du Quoin (19-11) now faces Trico in the championship game Saturday at 11 a.m.
Trico beat Sparta, 12-0, in the other semifinal game Tuesday.
The Lady Indians already owned a win over Red Bud this season but didn't go up against hurler Sophia Koesterer.
And after two scoreless frames, Du Quoin got the all-important first run on a sacrifice fly by Chloe Hill that produced two runs when the throw home got away.
"That was big," said Du Quoin coach Jason James. "Especially with them not throwing their ace the first time. We didn't know what she had. With a new pitcher and their ace, we wanted to get ahead early and hang on."
The rally was started by Maci McKinnies reaching on an error and Morgan Bullar drawing a walk.
Red Bud went in front with three runs in the top of the fourth, two coming on a hit by Madison Shields, who later scored on a sac fly by Darrian Stapleton that was the first out of the inning.
Hill, the Du Quoin pitcher, then struck out leadoff hitter Makenzie Harbaugh and got Laura Juelfs to drub a comebacker and end the threat.
"Chloe did a good job of keeing her composure," James said. "When they went up 3-2, it could've went downhill big time from there. They had second and third with nobody out and you never know what's going to happen. But she got it inside and when they pulled it they hit it foul. And she kept it that way."
Du Quoin grabbed the lead back quickly.
In the bottom of the fourth, Avery Waller roped a leadoff single, then after Kaylee Aleshire struck out, Chloe Hess came up and smacked a double to bring Waller home.
"They came after her and threw her a fastball," James said of Hess. "She drove it to right-center and we got a run out of it."
McKinnies popped up for the second out, but Katie Smith was next and she crushed a triple to bring in Hess and make it 4-3.
A pair of errors led to an insurance run in the sixth, but Hill didn't need it. The righthander finished with 10 strikeouts and six of them came in the final three innings.
Du Quoin's next test is a rematch with Trico, a team it lost to during a home round robin early in the season.
"We need to be confident and relax," James said. "We know they're a good ballclub and we know Jade Kranawetter can throw it. We just have to play good defense and try to scratch some runs across."