SOFTBALL: Carterville's DaRosa shuts out DHS
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The last time DuQuoin and Carterville met on the softball field Carterville trounced DuQuoin 13-0 in five innings. This time it was a very well played ball game, but it was still a loss. This time the score was 2-0 in Carterville's favor.
DuQuoin's Cassidy Rice again pitched well enough to win, but DuQuoin could not put any runs on the board to support her. Rice's record is 10-4. She pitched all seven innings allowing two runs (one unearned), 4 hits, had 7 strikeouts, and no walks. The winning pitcher for Carterville was Sarah DaRosa. DaRosa pitched all seven innings, allowing no runs, 4 hits, had 10 strikeouts, and one walk.
Carterville's two runs were scored in the second inning. The first batter up was Mollie Thomas. She took the first pitch over the fence for a home run. The next batter was Sarah DaRosa, who hit the first pitch off the wall for a double. She stole third base, and then scored on a wild pitch. Carterville threatened to score again in the seventh, but Cassidy Rice had two big strikeouts. In the fifth inning, Curry Emling (flex) made a diving catch in right field to take away a hit from Carterville.
The Indians threatened in the sixth when Toler reached on an error and Hirsch singled to put two runners on, but a strikeout, a groundout, and another strikeout followed for DaRosa and Carterville.
DuQuoin's defense let down in the seventh when they had two errors. Up to that point DuQuoin committed no errors. Carterville had only one error in the game. DuQuoin's record is 13-4 overall and 0-4 in the conference.
DuQuoin had four hits. Jessica Hirsch was 2-3. Bri Green, the designated player, was 1-3. Cassidy Rice was 1-3. Also seeing action were Kelsey Toler, Kelsey Robinson, Hadley Marek, Magen Edwards, Katrina Whitley, Ashley Ward, Curry Emling, and Jessy Wallace. Magen Edwards had a nice sacrifice bunt in the second inning to move a runner to second. DuQuoin's offense could not move runners past second base in the second and seventh innings.
Coach Jason James thought "it was a whole lot better than the last time we played Carterville. We came out and gave them a much better ball game. Take away the home run and a wild pitch? We played well until the last inning when we made two errors. We have to keep chugging along because our conference is really tough. Tomorrow we go to Pinckneyville. We have to stay focused and not give in."
DuQuoin travels to Pinckneyville (15-5, 2-2) on Tuesday with first pitch set for 4:30 p.m. There will also be a JV game played.
-Doug Daniels of the Du Quoin Evening Call also contributed to this story