SOFTBALL: English, Rock carry Carterville past Du Quoin
Du Quoin fell 8-1 at Carterville on Thursday, dropping their second game in a row to a state-ranked softball team and managing only three hits against Avery English, who added three hits at the plate for the unbeaten Lady Lions.
English fanned ten Lady Indians, just two days after Nashville's Maci Ingram whiffed fourteen DHS batters in the Hornettes' 3-0 win.
"English came inside to us a lot," said Du Quoin head coach Jason James, "and I thought we stayed in the same spot in the box and she continued to do the same thing. Then when she got us 0-2, she'd throw the change-up. We've got to play to contact. When you get two strikes on you, just try to put the ball in play and shorten up your swing."
The game remained scoreless when Carterville took advantage of some misreads on balls to the outfield by Du Quoin in the bottom of the third.
Lady Indians starter Marisa Ferguson retired the first two hitters that inning, but English singled to spark a four-run rally for the Lions. Kylee Rock then reached on an error, Megan Hampton singled, Montana Taylor doubled, and Megan Barrett smacked a base hit to left to give Carterville all the momentum.
"We talked about it after the game, trying to get our reads, trying to get our jumps," James said. "We hesitate, then we try to react and it's too late, and we're a couple of inches from getting out of that inning with a great catch. That's something we have to improve on. If we make those same kind of mistakes (Monday against Pinckneyville), we're going to be in trouble again."
Du Quoin kept it interesting with a run in the top of the fourth. Ferguson walked to lead off and was erased on a fielder's choice by Mackenzie Jackson, who later scored on an RBI ground-out by Jordyn Bullar after getting moved to third on Amanda Atteberry's base hit. From there on out, English shut the door on any hopes of a Lady Indians comeback.
Carterville added a run on an RBI single by Rock in the fifth, and the University of Illinois signee added a two-run inside the park homer in the sixth as part of a three-run rally for the Lady Lions.
Ferguson gave up four earned runs on nine hits and a walk with one strikeout. She dominated the bottom four spots in the Carterville lineup (1-for-12), but struggled against the meat of the order, spots 1-through-5 (9-for-17).
Ferguson (1-2), Atteberry (1-3) and Afton Robinson (1-3) had hits for Du Quoin. The bottom four spots in the Lady Indians' lineup fared even worse than Carterville's 6-through-9 hitters, going 0-for-11 with 8 strikeouts.
Carterville improved to 17-0, 4-0 in the SIRR Mississippi Division.
Du Quoin (9-10, 1-3) is off until Monday when they host Pinckneyville.