Boys Prep Baseball

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Du Quoin High School's Baseball team inched one step closer to another 20-win season Monday night, building on its current winning streak and ending the regular season with a great shot of momentum.

The Indians dispatched of Class 3A Centralia 6-3 at sparkling Foundation Park, improving to 19-7 and winning for the 10th consecutive time.

Du Quoin's next game is Thursday vs. Murphysboro (14-10) in the semifinal round of Pinckneyville's Class 2A Regional.

Sophomores Brandon George and J.C. Davis combined on a four-hitter, surrendering just one earned run and striking out eight Orphans.

"We got great pitching against a great hitting Centralia team," Indians coach Tim Craft said. "We held them down to four hits and were able to take advantage of some things in the third and fourth innings."

After Centralia (13-9) scored three times against George for an early lead, the Indians caught fire in the fourth.

A laser-beam home run by Josh Cushman-well over the 380' mark in the rightfield power alley-broke the ice.

Three straight singles from Colin Jones, Garrett Hopkins and Nick Baskin then trimmed the Centralia lead to 3-2. George tied things with an RBI hit to send Hopkins home.

In the decisive fifth inning, Seth Flint led off with a single and went to third base when Cushman smacked an opposite field off the leftfield wall.

Flint scored when Ethan Beasley's smash to shortstop was booted and Cushman raced home on the throwing error that followed.

Another error sent Beasley home for a 6-3 Du Quoin edge.

George (1-1) worked four innings to notch his first varsity win.

Fanning three, George walked two and gave three hits.

Davis was dominant in relief, whiffing five over the final three frames while giving only one hit. The save was his first.

"Josh's home run got us going in the third and we were able to recover after some mistakes," Craft said.

Cushman and George each had two hits.

Du Quoin 6, Centralia 3

DHS 003 300 0-6 9 2

C'tralia 002 100 0-3 4 4

WP-George, 1-1. S-Davis, 1. TOP HITTERS-Du Quoin: Davis 1-4, Flint 1-4, Cushman 2-4 (HR, 2B, RBI), Jones 1-4, Hopkins 1-3, Baskin 1-3, George 2-3 (RBI).