SOFTBALL: Walks, errors allow West Frankfort to come back on Du Quoin
The Lady Indians out-hit West Frankfort 8-6 in Wednesday's varsity softball matchup at Du Quoin, but issued eight walks from the pitching circle, allowing the Lady Redbirds to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the game 6-3.
The game, originally scheduled as a road game for the Lady Indians, was moved to DHS due to wet field conditions in West Frankfort.
"I thought we took better hacks today, for the most part," said Du Quoin head coach Jason James. "We kind of beat ourselves - we had eight walks, we had four or five passed balls, and then we had the two big errors in the field that led to their big inning. That's stuff we've got to take out of there to give ourselves an opportunity to win."
"I think we're right there with these teams, but we keep finding a way to lose the game. That's something we've got to improve on."
DHS starter Marisa Ferguson pitched her way out of two early jams, allowing her offense to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning.
Afton Robinson and Ferguson started the three-run rally with one-out base hits, then Amanda Atteberry drew a walk to load the bases for Amber Williams. Williams delivered the biggest hit of the day for Du Quoin, a two-run single, before Mackenzie Jackson hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Kat Robison, Atteberry's courtesy runner.
But the scoring abruptly stopped for the Lady Indians after that. Du Quoin stranded at least one base runner in four of the last five innings and left eight on for the day.
"Right now we're a singles team," James said. "We've got to string something together, we've got to get somebody on before we get two outs, that way maybe we can get a run or bunt somebody over. (Alaina) Caldwell and (Sydney) Lewis have a couple extra base hits, but other than that it's just single, single, single. That's something we've got to fix. We've got to string the hits together and try to produce more runs."
West Frankfort, on the other hand, was just getting started when Sarah Aldridge hit a sac fly to plate Kiahra Wilce (walk) in the top of the third.
The Lady Redbirds chipped away another run in the fourth on a double by Terrilynn Summers and another sac fly, this one by Sydney Chamness, making it 3-2.
West Frankfort snatched the lead in the fifth without a single hit. Three walks and two Du Quoin errors allowed the Lady Redbirds to bring in three runs, none of which were earned, and the Lady Indians suddenly trailed 5-3.
Allie Herron added an RBI double in the top of the seventh for an insurance tally.
Lewis (2-4), who moved from the bottom half of the order up to the number two spot for Wednesday's game, and Ferguson (2-3) both had two hits for Du Quoin.
"Lewis is a good stick for us," James said. "Alaina Caldwell is the same way, two kids that are going up there confident swinging the bat. Lewis is hitting right around .500 and getting on base for us. We're going to keep moving things around until we find the right mix."
Caldwell (1-3, BB), Robinson (1-3, R), Williams (1-3, 2 RBI) and Jordyn Bullar (1-4) also had hits for the Lady Indians.
Ferguson worked the first five innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits and eight walks with a pair of strikeouts. Jackson mopped up the sixth and seventh, giving up one earned run on three hits.
Wilce (1-3, R, 2B, BB), Summers (2-4, 3 R, 2 2B), Herron (1-1, RBI, 3 BB), Jacklynn Calvert (1-3, R, BB) and Sam Finn (1-3, BB) did the hitting for West Frankfort.
Aldridge tossed all seven innings for the win, allowing three earned runs on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
Du Quoin (2-4) is off until Saturday when they host Salem and New Athens. Game one is scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. first pitch.