BASEBALL: Indians hand Lions their first conference loss
A day after Du Quoin's Dalton Day shut out Z-R-C, Levi Brening continued the stretch of superb pitching for the Indians at Carterville as DHS handed the Lions their first conference loss 6-2 behind the right-hander's complete game.
Brening gave up two earned runs on seven hits and a walk and struck out four, adding a hit at the plate.
"Hopefully it's contagious," Du Quoin head coach Tim Craft said of the pitching effort. "Dalton (Day) came out and did a great job for us Wednesday, then Levi came out and controlled the count today. He had them out on their front foot and was throwing two or three pitches for strikes, and that's a plus."
The Indians never trailed, scoring three runs in the top of the third inning against Lions starter Austin Swalls. A.J. Smith delivered a one-out, two-run double to score Ethan Keller (error) and Jacob Valier (single), then scored on an RBI single by Brock Bullar to make it 3-0.
Carterville got one run back - and almost two more - in the bottom of the third. Swalls singled home Alex Griffin with two outs, and with runners at the corners, Blake Hicks drove the ball to center field where Cole Hopkins made an difficult catch to save at least one run.
"It was a big play at a big time," Craft said. "To come up and make a play in that situation kind of helped Levi settle down a little bit and got our team going again."
The Indians plated a run in the fifth after Keller walked and scored, then added two insurance tallies in the top of the seventh without a single hit. Hopkins struck out, but reached first base on a dropped third strike. Valier walked with one out, and both came in to score when Brening reached on an error to put Du Quoin up 6-1.
"All year we've kind of struggled when we need to play for one run and get the job done, and we were able to do it today," Craft said. "We got a couple bunts down and played station-to-station after we got a little bit of a lead. We always remind the kids to run everything out and that's a good example of why, we got a couple runs because we did it."
Carterville threatened in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring on Colt Wilkey's RBI single and loading the bases to bring the tying run to the dish, but Brening got Hicks to pop out to Ryne O'Rourke at first base to end the game.
Valier (1-2, 2 R, BB, SAC), Smith (1-4 R, 2 RBI, 2B), Brening (1-4), Bullar (2-4, RBI) and O'Rourke (1-3) had the Indians' six hits.
Du Quoin (8-6, 2-2) is off until Monday when they host the Pinckneyville Panthers.