Indians open up conference play with 1-0 loss to Carterville
Despite some gloomy weather, Du Quoin was able to squeeze in their conference opener against Carterville Monday evening, falling to the Lions in a pitchers dual, 1-0.<br />Jordan Edwards was dominant from start to finish, tossing a complete game while allowing just one run on four hits and one walk, while striking out eight. <br />"Their pitcher threw a great game and Jordan threw a great game for us," Du Quoin head coach Tim Craft said. "It's just somebody has to win and lose and it's just the way it goes sometimes." <br />Edwards retired the first nine batters he saw, before a fourth-inning single from the Lions spoiled the no-hit bid, but Edwards was able to work his way out of the inning fairly easily. <br />The Indians squandered their two best chances for some offense in the bottom of the third and fourth innings. <br />In the third, freshman second baseman Alex Zimmerman picked up Du Quoin's first hit of the game with a one-out single. <br />A groundout from Ashton Smith advanced him to second and he was able to advance to third on a wild pitch. But, Carterville's starting pitcher induced a fly out to second base to escape the inning unscathed. <br />Du Quoin threatened again in the bottom of the fourth with arguably its best scoring chance. <br />Braden Lee led off the inning with a double deep into left-center reaching the wall. Lee advanced to third on a wild pitch with one out. <br />Charley Mercier managed to connect with one out, but hit a ground ball right at the Carterville third basemen who threw out Lee at the plate. <br />"Well yea (it was case of wrong place, wrong time)," Craft said. "He kind of got a jump on it, their kid made a good fielding play and it worked out (for them). "Sometimes you put the pressure on them and they throw one away, but that just didn't happen this time. We had so few base runners we tried to put some pressure on them.<br />The Indians were unable to get another base runner the remainder of the game, as the Lions' starter worked 6 1/3 innings before being pulled due to pitch count. <br />The Lion reliever retired the final two batters on strikeouts to seal the 1-0 win. <br />"You know bottom line is they got their guy to third and found a way to drive him in," Craft said. "The couple of times we got to third, we just didn't get done." <br />The Indians will look to bounce back Tuesday with another conference game, as they travel to face rival Pinckneyville at 4:30 p.m.