BASEBALL: Walk-off walk ends Du Quoin's season
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[In the words of Rangers coach Brett Blondi, Du Quoin gave top-seeded Benton everything they wanted and more in Saturday's Regional championship, but in the end it was a bases-loaded walk that did in the Indians and handed the Rangers a 4-3 win in eight innings.
"They may have even outplayed us in a couple aspects," Blondi said, "but our kids were resilient. Trey (Garrett) settled down and threw the ball well, he limited everything to one run. We started making plays behind him and we scrapped one out at the end and got the win."
Proud of his players for pushing one of the area's best teams to the limits, DHS coach Tim Craft thought his squad just gave Benton too many chances. The Rangers had the leadoff man on base in every inning but the fourth.
"Benton's a good team, you can't give them as many opportunities as we did to score," Craft said. "They took advantage of a couple and kind of hurt us. The kids did a good job of fighting back when they made mistakes, making big plays and I can't say enough about them."
The Rangers didn't have a hit in the bottom of the eighth of the 3-3 ball game, but they didn't need one either. Beau Gibbs was hit with a pitch from Austin Mansker to lead off the inning, then Cameron Rock came up to try and move Gibbs' pinch runner Scott Johnson into scoring position. Rock bunted back to Mansker, who threw wide of second base just enough to pull Kegan Robbins off the bag leaving both runners safe.
Cody Smith flew out to Jon Boss in left, then Mansker walked Tyler Leffler to load the bases. Trey Garrett's grounder resulted in a force out at home for the second out before clean-up hitter Mason Childers stepped in.
Mansker went 3-0 on Childers before grooving two fastballs for called strikes, but couldn't find the zone with the full-count pitch and Rock came home to send Benton to the Sectional.
"Mason was patient at the plate," said Blondi. "Credit (Mansker) on 3-0, he knew we weren't swinging and threw them right down the pipe two pitches in a row, which is tough to do. Mason stayed disciplined on that full count pitch, it was a ball, he took it and executed well, and that was the game."
Benton hadn't led until that point, falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first after Nate Boss singled to bring in Robbins. Smith walked and scored on a double by Childers in the bottom of the first to tie it up, but Garrett Dorsey put Du Quoin back on top in the second with an RBI base hit. The Rangers struck back in the third when Ethan Hughes drove in Childers to make it 2-2.
In the fourth, Dylan Pyron singled and was awarded second on a balk, then Robbins singled to bring him in for a 3-2 Du Quoin lead. The Indians' offense wouldn't get much else, however, managing just two singles the rest of the game off Garrett.
"We've seen him throw a couple times and he's the type of kid that's a big strong kid, once he gets dialed in he gets a little better every inning," said Craft.
Garrett and Childers led off with singles in the fifth, then Jared Johnston walked with one out to load the bases for an RBI fielder's choice by Nathaniel Higgins evening the score yet again.
Things tightened up from that point on with the game on the line. Du Quoin starter A.J. Smith exited after six solid innings, and in the bottom of the seventh Mansker came on and got a double play after the leadoff man reached base on an error. Camden Youngman then smoked a single through the middle to lead off Du Quoin's eighth, but Travis Chapman grounded into a 2-6-3 double play to end that threat.
"They put our backs against the wall a couple of times and the kids really fought back," Craft said. "There in the seventh inning we make the error and turn a double play on the next pitch. Give their defense credit too, we get our leadoff runner on and we bunt, and they turn a double play off the bunt. It's a tough game to lose for both teams."
Smith walked seven men, but only allowed four hits. He fanned six and allowed three runs, one earned.
"For a freshman to come out in a Regional championship game against one of the best teams in the south, go six strong innings and put us in a position to win, the pinch count got a little high but other than that he did a great job, that's tough," Craft said. "He just kept coming at them and coming at them."
Robbins (2-4, R, RBI), N. Boss (2-3, HBP, RBI), Youngman (1-4), Dorsey (1-3, RBI) and Pyron (1-3, R) accounted for Du Quoin's seven hits off Garrett, who struck out nine and walked none.
Childers's two hits (2-4, 2B, BB, R, 2 RBI) led the Rangers' offense, Garrett (1-5, R) and Hughes (1-4, RBI) had the other hits for Benton.
The Indians finished up 18-15 in a season that followed a third place finish at the Class 2A tournament in 2011. With most of the key starters from that team gone, Craft knew his 2012 team had work to do before rounding into form late in the season.
"We knew we had some growing to do with only three or four kids that saw a lot of playing time coming back, but we still had high expectations," said Craft. "We've seen this kids play in junior high and everywhere else. We kind of got through the growing pains towards the middle of the year, started figuring it out. It's a tough way to end in a Regional championship, but losing to a tough team like Benton, that's not bad."
The Rangers (31-6) move on to Wednesday's Vandalia Sectional where they will meet Anna-Jonesboro at 4:30 p.m. Trenton (Wesclin) and Breese (Mater Dei) make up the other semifinal matchup.
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