IHSA BASEBALL: Tribe's Express Derailed in Sectional Final

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Du Quoin High School's bid to reach the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Class 2A State Baseball Elite Eight was cut short by a red-hot opponent Saturday morning.

The Indians lost 14-3 to Edwardsville (Metro East Lutheran) in the finals of the Greenville Sectional, ending the season with a 22-8 record.

A 13-game winning streak-dating back over month-also came to a crashing halt for the Tribe.

"We ran into a hot team," Indians coach Tim Craft said. "They were hitting the ball all over the place Friday (12-2 win over Wesclin) and they hit the ball all over the place today. That's the bottom line. They are just really hitting the ball well."

Metro-East needed just nine hits in the five-inning affair to hand Du Quoin a lopsided defeat. The Indians had eight hits, but a nine-run second inning by MEL sealed the outcome early.

There three costly Du Quoin errors during the fray. Indian pitchers Cale Bastien (5-2) and J.C. Davis also walked five batters.

Metro East had five hits in the inning. The big blow was a wind-blown three-run homer by Jon Trampe.

The lead reached 10-1 before Du Quoin began to rally, scoring twice on Seth Flint's tape-measure home run to deep right field.

The rally ended, however, when Colin Jones' bases loaded smash up the middle was turned into an easy 6-3 double play by Trampe.

Another Indian uprising had been quelled the inning prior when Nick Baskin was called out on a close play at first base, completing another DP.

All totalled, the Indians stranded 11 runners. Du Quoin pitching surrendered eight walks.

At the plate, Josh Cushman topped the Indians with a 2-for-3 effort.

George went 2-for-2.

An infield out by Davis produced the third Du Quoin run.

MEL had a two-homer game by Matt Brynildsen, including a two-run blast off Trent Bigham to end things.

Metro East, 25-11, advanced to play Herrin (16-13) in Monday's Super-Sectional at Sauget.