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SIBCA Finals: Du Quoin Ends First Summer with Title

Posted July 06, 2009 11:00 pm

Jeff Profitt

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Du Quoin High School's Summer Baseball team completed its run through the Southern Illinois Baseball Coaches Association (SIBCA) Tournament with another lopsided victory Monday.

The Indians needed just five innings to short-game host Eldorado in the tourney's championship game, ending its brief summer schedule with a 7-1 record.

Scoring 43 runs in three tournament victories, Du Quoin wasted little time in heating up its offensive motor against Eldorado.

The Tribe scored six runs in the opening frame, all with two outs, to decide things early.

"I'm proud of these kids and how the summer turned out," Indians coach Tim Craft said. "It's important to win and develop that winning attitude-and our goal was to win this tournament-but we've had a lot of kids really show improvement and the younger kids were able to gain some experience."

A two-run single by Jake Stanhouse in the first inning started the Du Quoin onslaught.

Kyle Kelley, Drew Bennett and Jonathon Boss added RBI hits. Another basehit, by Dylan Pyron, stretched the lead to 6-0.

Tyler Shelton tripled with two outs in the second and came around fo the seventh run on Brandon George's RBI double.

With its lead whittled down to 7-3 entering the third, Du Quoin plated two more tallies.

Bennett reached on a force play and Boss later walked.

Again with two outs, the Indians came through again. Pyron legged out an infield hit to score Bennett.

Boss raced home after the throw to first base eluded Eldorado's defense.

In the fourth, Du Quoin tacked on four more runs, three coming on Corey Campanella's bases loaded double to the rightfield fence.

Matt Gossett walked to force in the fourth run. Again, all the tallies came with two out.

The final Indians mark crossed home after a triple from Boss and a wild pitch. That proved to be the only Du Quoin run that scored with less than two out.

Kelley pitched the first 3.2 innings, giving just two earned runs and striking out two.

The lefty allowed only three hits before George entered to retire the final four Eagle batters.

Kelley started-and won-all three of the SIBCA tourney games for the Indians.

"We were able to get a lot of innings for Kyle Kelley and he had a great summer," Craft said. "Kyle gained loads of experience and that's big heading into next year. I know eight games aren't that many, but you could see a lot of our kids just keep getting better. I know a lot of people don't put much stock in summer ball, but our kids improved and worked to get better every time out."

Shelton, George, Boss and Campanella all enjoyed two-hit games with Keegan Robbins, Matt Gossett, Stanhouse, Kelley, Bennett and Wyatt Bastien added safeties to join the hit parade.

Du Quoin is a first-year member of the SIBCA and Craft indicated the team will likely again join the league in 2010.

He's also hoping to expand the schedule.

The summer Indians avenged the only regular season blemish on their record, eliminating Carterville 12-8 in the first round of tourney play.

Another short-game, last Thursday's 17-7 romp over Fairfield, followed in the semifinal round.

Du Quoin 14, Eldorado 3

DHS 612 41-14 16 1

EHS 030 00-3 3 5

Kelley, George (4) and Shelton. WP-Kelley. TOP HITTERS-Du Quoin: Robbins 1-3, Shelton 2-2 (3B), George 2-3 (2B, RBI), M. Gossett 1-1, Stanhouse 1-2 (3 RBI), Campanella 2-2 (2B, 3 RBI), Kelley 1-3 (RBI), Bennett 1-3, Boss 2-3 (3B), Pyron 2-3 (2 RBI), S. Gossett 0-2, Bastien 1-2. FINAL RECORDS-Du Quoin ends 7-1.

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