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BASEBALL SUPER-SECTIONAL: Indians book ticket for Peoria

Posted May 31, 2011 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Trent Bigham struck out four of the last seven batters he faced to wrap up a 2-0 shutout of Anna-Jonesboro for Du Quoin in Monday's IHSA Class 2A Baseball Super-Sectional at GCS Park in Sauget.

Jake Stanhouse and Seth Baxter provided the RBI's for the Indians, who advance to the final four in baseball for the first time since 1995 riding a thirteen-game winning streak.

"We knew it was going to be a fight," Indians head coach Tim Craft said. "We had some plays go our way and Trent was fantastic on the mound. Coming back from Friday, on short rest, and throwing the most pitches he'd thrown all year, and he comes out and just slams the door on them."

Coming off a complete game victory over Edwardsville (Metro-East Lutheran) in Friday's Greenville Sectional Semifinal, Bigham showed no signs of fatigue on the hill and even seemed to throw harder as the game progressed.

"This is what we've been working for every year since I've been in high school, four years," Bigham said. "We just wanted to make it to state."

"I just did what I had to do, I knew I had to throw strikes. Some balls got up in the zone a little bit, but I just tried staying down and tried to get ground balls. My defense was there and helped me the whole game, I give it all to them."

After the Indians stranded J.C. Davis at third base following his leadoff double in the top of the first, Bigham ran into his first real jam of the day in the bottom of the second inning.

Tyler Vaughn lined a double to the outfield that was misplayed to start the inning and wound up at third base on the miscue. Alex McRaven then walked, and with runners at the corners the Wildcats appeared to try the same tricky run-down play that Greenville had executed successfully against Du Quoin in the Sectional Final.

McRaven was caught well off the bag at first base, and as Indians' first baseman Drew Bennett ran him to second, Vaughn broke for home from third. Unlike in Greenville, this time the runner was gunned down at the plate as Travis Chapman applied the tag to keep A-J off the scoreboard.

"Drew (Bennett) did a fantastic job of keeping his composure, knowing the runner was going," said Craft. "The bench did a good job of reminding him, hollering 'four, four, four' when they saw him start breaking, so it was a team effort on that play."

Bigham then issued a free pass to Wildcats' DH Brent Goforth, but erased it by getting a 6-4-3 double-play ball off the bat of Chad Mayes and escaped with no damage.

"Bigham threw his butt off," said Wildcat's head baseball coach Jake Alley. "He played a great game, Du Quoin was ready to go today. Not to say that we weren't, but we were pumped, they were pumped, they got the hits when they needed to and we didn't. They've got a good bunch of seniors that can take them a long way."

The Indians finally broke through in the fourth when Bigham reached on an error and came around to score on Stanhouse's two-out RBI single for a 1-0 lead on Anna-Jonesboro starter Brady Wright.

"All game long they were fouling pitches off with two strikes," Alley said. "We were swinging through them, they were fouling them off, they got hits with two outs and we didn't. That was the key to the game."

The Wildcats threatened to get it back in the bottom of the frame, but Bigham was able to get another rally-killing ground ball double-play, this time from Goforth.

Bennett singled to lead off the top of the sixth for DHS and was ran for by Camden Youngman, who was sacrificed to second on Bigham's bunt. Connor Wheeler then singled to put men at the corners for Baxter. The Indians' second baseman drove the ball in the air to right, deep enough for Youngman to tag from third and put Du Quoin up 2-0.

That was more than Bigham and the Indians' defense would need.

After two one-out walks, Bigham struck out the next two hitters in the bottom of the sixth, then the first two batters in the top of the seventh to bring the fans in red and black to their feet. Dalton Baker doubled with two gone, then Brent Taylor walked, but Cody Livesay popped out to Kegan Robbins in center to end the game and send Du Quoin to Peoria this Friday for the state semifinals.

"Even when we got two runners on we were going to stick with Trent, he deserved it" said Craft, a member of the '95 Indians that made it to the final four.

Stanhouse, the DHS designated hitter for right fielder Dylan Pyron, led Du Quoin with a perfect 3-for-3 (2B, RBI) showing at the plate. Wheeler (2-3), Davis (1-4, 2B), Bennett (1-3), and Bigham (1-2, R, SAC) also hit safely in the game.

"Jake did a great job hitting, Seth came up with the big sacrifice fly for us as well," Craft said. "They're both seniors, and this time of the year you rely on your seniors to get things done, and I had full faith in both of them getting things done."

Bigham allowed six hits, six walks, hit a batter and struck out five to pick up the victory. Wright threw all seven innings for A-J, allowed eight hits, one walk and whiffed eight.

Up next for Du Quoin (18-12) is the IHSA Class 2A State Semifinal on Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. in Peoria against Melrose Park (Walther Lutheran). The two teams will face off at O'Brien Field, home of the Peoria Chiefs, with the winner advancing into Saturday's 5:00 p.m. championship, the loser falling into the third place game at 3:00 p.m. earlier that same afternoon.

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