BASEBALL: Indians open season with a victory
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[DuQuoin High School baseball got off to winning start in their first game of the season on Monday evening. DuQuoin defeated Goreville 2-1 on a Connor Wheeler single up the middle with two outs in the sixth inning to drive in the winning run.
Goreville took the lead in the third inning on a walk, single and a sacrifice fly to right field. DuQuoin did not get a hit until the bottom of the third inning when J.C. Davis hit an infield single. The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth inning. Jake Stanhouse led off with a walk. Dylan Pyron entered as a pinch runner for Stanhouse. Trent Bigham bunted down the third base line for a single. Pyron and Bigham advanced a base each on a wild pitch. Seth Baxter grounded out to third driving in Pyron to tie the game. Connor Wheeler then singled to take the lead 2-1. Goreville was unable to score in the seventh inning giving DuQuoin the victory.
Trent Bigham got the win for DuQuoin pitching 6 innings allowing 1 hit, 1 earned run, gave up 3 walks, and had 9 strikeouts. Kegan Robbins came in the game in the seventh inning. Robbins pitched one inning, allowing 1 walk and had 3 strikeouts.
J.C. Davis was 2-3 at bat, Trent Bigham was 1-3, Seth Baxter was 1-3 with an RBI, and Connor Wheeler was 1-3 with an RBI.
Coach Tim Craft was happy about the win over a tough Goreville team. "We knew it would be a tough game when we saw they were throwing their ace, Nick Andros. He struck us out 13 times through five innings but we were able to make him throw a lot of pitches in the process. We were able to chase him from the game and take advantage of their relief pitching. Our kids really grinded out the game today. Andros was a really tough pitcher to be the first live pitching we have seen in the spring.
Trent gave us a great six innings only allowed 1 hit, and Kegan came in and shut the door in the 7th inning. Connor's first few at bats were a little rough, but he did a great job adjusting at the plate and making solid contact to drive in the winning run."
DuQuoin starts the young season out with a 1-0 record.
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