DU QUOIN BASEBALL: Diamond Tribe's Offense Batters Goreville
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ With hits from all nine spots in its order- and from nine different batters- Du Quoin High School's Baseball team again rolled up some impressive during Monday's home opener against Goreville.
The Tribe posted a 16-6 victory, winning a contest that ended via the mercy rule in the sixth inning.
Du Quoin, 3-0, is idle until Saturday's trip to Kinmundy for games against Farina South Central and Dieterich.
"I'm pretty pleased with the last few days," Indians coach Tim Craft said. "We've beaten two good programs in Herrin and Goreville. I've seen a lot of good things. There have been some bad things, too. But overall, we feel good about how the season's started."
Through its first three contests, the Tribe is averaging 14 runs and 15 hits. They've rolled up those figures despite stranding a fair share of base runners.
Leaving 10 against Goreville (1-1), Du Quoin made sure those wasted opportunities wouldn't bounce back and bite them.
After the Blackcats went ahead 1-0 in the first, the Indians plated six tallies in the second and added three more third inning tallies.
Nick Baskin had a key two-run triple that put Du Quoin in front for good with Ethan Beasley's single plating two more runs.
In the third, Cale Bastien smacked a two-run triple.
"All up and down our line-up we've had kids step up and get big hits," Craft said. "Six-through-9 especially, we've been getting a lot of RBI and hits."
Trailing 10-1, Goreville scored five times in the fourth against Du Quoin starter Garrett Hopkins and reliever Trent Bigham.
Striking out three, Bigham allowed just one hit over the final three frames to gain his first varsity save . He set the final nine Blackcat hitters down in succession.
Bigham and Hopkins (1-0) combined on a four-hitter with seven K's.
Only one Blackcat run turned out to be earned.
At the plate, Bigham also went 2-for-2 with an RBI.
"Trent struggled a little bit against Herrin Saturday and we wanted to get him right back out there today if needed and he did a great job," Craft said. "Garrett Hopkins pitched pretty well too. He just ran out of gas. At times, we've struggled to play and pitch with the lead and that's something we need to work on."
Du Quoin closed the game with six more runs in its final three at-bats.
Colin Jones, Cushman, Tyler Shelton and Jacob Craig knocked in runs.
Beasley was 3-for-4 with J.C. Davis, Bastien, Cushman, Bigham and Brandon George all recording two hits.
Du Quoin 16, Goreville 6
Goreville 105 000- 6 4 3
DHS 064 213-16 16 1
Harner, Stoutt (4), J. Smith (6) and Shadowens. Hopkins, Bigham (3) and Jones. WP- Hopkins 1-0. LP- Harner. SV-Bigham, 1. TOP HITTERS- Goreville: Shadowens 1-2 (2B, RBI). Du Quoin: Davis 2-3 (RBI), Bastien 2-4 (2B,3B, 3 RBI), Cushman 2-4 (2B, 2 RBI), Beasley 3-4 (3B, 2 RBI), Jones 1-2 (RBI), Shelton 1-1 (RBI) Bigham 2-2 (RBI), Baskin 1-2 (3B, 2 RBI), Craig (RBI), George 2-3 (2 RBI).