DU QUOIN BASEBALL: Indians Again Rule the Mississippi !
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ For the 20th time in a proud and tradition-rich history-and for the third time in the past five years-Du Quoin High School's Baseball team is River-to-River Conference champion.
Wednesday afternoon at the Bud Cohen Complex main diamond in Chester, the Indians weathered a 57-minute rain delay and rolled to a 10-3 victory over the host.
The win clinched the Mississippi Division title for Du Quoin, which ends SIRR play at 8-2.
Second place Nashville (5-3) was officially eliminated from the race following the Tribe's triumph.
Overall, Du Quoin (17-7) has won seven straight games.
Friday at 4:30, they'll visit Goreville. Saturday is now Du Quoin's Senior Day with a 1 o'clock game against Centralia slated.
"I am really proud of this group of kids. We were a little down early in the season and they rallied around each other and turned the season around," Indians coach Tim Craft said.
"It is a great accomplishment to win our conference. We have several quality teams and our league is very competitive."
Du Quoin's SIRR record was 2-2 after losses to Nashville and Anna-Jonesboro last month. The Indians followed those defeats with six consecutive league wins.
Against Chester, the Indians started strong and scored in each of the seven frames.
A three-run first was highlighted by RBI singles from Josh Cushman and Colin Jones.
The third tally scored on a wild pitch.
In the fourth, Cushman stretched the lead to 7-1 with a two-run homer to the opposite field. Garrett Hopkins and
Cushman added late RBI as Du Quoin pulled away.
Cushman was 3-for-4 at the plate with four RBI. Seth Flint and Cale Bastien-two more seniors-each had two-hit days.
Nick Baskin, J.C. Davis and Brandon also poked hits. Hopkins finished with two RBI.
Cushman (6-2) worked six strong innings on the mound, whiffing 13 and scattering five hits. He allowed three runs-just one earned-and walked two. The lefty picked off a pair of Chester base runners.
Trent Bigham worked the seventh.
"Josh struggled a little bit leaving the ball up on the plate but was still very good on the mound," Craft said. "We made some great plays behind him to help him out. Cale Bastien made a fantastic diving catch to end the sixth inning and Seth Flint made some great plays digging the ball out of the dirt at first."
Bastien's stab came on a pop-up by Zach Slavens into shallow leftfield.
Ranging from his shortstop position, Bastien was fully extended as he dove to make the play while avoiding two teammates-George and Ethan Beasley-who were also closing in.
The Mississippi crown is Craft's first as head coach. He led the Indians on an interim basis during the 2005 championship run.
Seniors Cushman, Jones, Hopkins, Bastien, Beasley and Baskin were also part of the Indians' 2006 conference title squad.
Wednesday's game started shortly after steady rainfall ended in Chester.
Neither team took infield practice and combined for nine fielding and/or throwing errors during the contest.
Du Quoin 10, Chester 3
DHS 311 211 1- 10 12 4
Chester 100 110 0- 3 6 5
Cushman, Bigham (7) and Jones, Shelton (6). Eggemeyer, Grah (2) and Wahl. WP-Cushman, 6-2. LP-Eggemeyer. TOP HITTERS-Du Quoin: Davis 1-3, Flint 2-3 (2B), Cushman 3-4 (HR, 4 RBI), Bastien 2-4 (2B), Jones 1-4 (RBI), Hopkins 1-2 (2 RBI), Baskin 1-4 (RBI), George 1-3. Chester: Lochhead 3-3. JUNIOR VARSITY: Du Quoin won.