DU QUOIN BASEBALL: Diamond Indians Back in Position
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ It's been a long climb up, but Du Quoin High School's Baseball team can again see light of day in the River-to-River Conference's Mississippi Division race.
In fact, the Indians have put themselves in position to win its second SIRR crown in the past four spring's.
Winning 6-3 at Nashville Monday, the Indians (6-2, 14-7 overall) moved into the top spot atop the division by percentage points over Nashville (3-2) and Anna-Jonesboro (4-2).
Du Quoin has only rescheduled games left against Sparta (Thursday) and Chester (May 13) to complete league play.
Combined, Nashville and A-J have nine divisional battles remaining over the final two weeks of play.
"We dug a pretty big hole to get out of with those early losses," Indians coach Tim Craft said about home field April setbacks to A-J and Nashville.
"We've made it tough on ourselves- and still have two tough games left- but we kind of control our destiny now and that's a good feeling."
Strong pitching, solid defense and an early-striking offense staked Du Quoin to an early lead it would never reqlinquish Monday.
Seth Flint blasted a tape-measure home run in the first to start the scoring. In the second, Garrett Hopkins doubled and moved to third on Nick Baskin's bunt.
Hopkins then scored for a 2-0 lead when Brandon George lofted a sacrifice fly to deep rightfield.
With two down, J.C. Davis walked and raced home Flint smacked an RBI single.
Nashville (13-7) bit into the 4-0 lead with a pair of tallies in its half of the second.
A two-run single by Michael Wilson made the score 4-2, but the Hornets could get no closer.
Du Quoin added insurance markers in the fourth and sixth frames.
Flint narrowly missed another homer- smacking a double off the wall- stretching the lead to 5-2.
In the sixth, another two-out safety- this from Cushman- accounted for the final Du Quoin run.
Cale Bastien (4-1) worked a solid 6.1 innings for the Indians, scattering five hits while striking out five. Cushman finished up with a pair of K's to notch the save.
"Cale probably didn't have his best stuff and Nashville's a good hitting team," Craft said. "Defensively we made some great plays behind him and Cale's confidence kept on growing."
Du Quoin turned a pair of double plays behind Bastien and Cushman's sliding catch in rightfield saved an early run.
Flint was 3-for-4 with three RBI, ending just a triple shy of the cycle.
Cushman added a two-hit game. Bastien doubled.
"After that good start things just snowballed for us," Craft said. "Now we just need to take care of business in these next two conference games."
A previously scheduled game against Z-R-C Wednesday has been postponed.
Du Quoin will host Marissa-Coulterville Friday and then visit Centralia Saturday for a 1 p.m. game.
Du Quoin 6, Nashville 3
DHS 130 101 0- 6 8 2
N'ville 020 010 0- 3 5 0
Bastien, Cushman (7) and Jones. Dalman, Wilson (6) and Hale. WP- Bastien, 4-1. LP-Dalman, 4-2. SV-Cushman, 2. TOP HITTERS- Du Quoin: Davis 1-2 (2B) Flint 3-4 (2B, HR, 3 RBI), Cushman 2-2 (2 RBI), Bastien 1-3, Hopkins 1-3 (2B), Baskin 0-1 (RBI). Nashville: Wilson 1-3 (2 RBI).
, Unverferht 1-3 (2B), Guest (RBI).