Du Quoin baseball falls to Carbondale, tops Flora
DU QUOIN - After nine days of wetness, the Du Quoin High School baseball team was finally able to take the field Saturday and split a pair of games at its own Pepsi Classic.
The Indians droppped a tough one to Carbondale in the early game, 4-3, then rebounded later to beat Flora, 10-5 in five innings, just before another round of rain.
"It's tough," said Indians coach Kyle Geiger. "You get a couple games in and see some live stuff and then have to sit for a week, it can be frustrating. Especially for guys that haven't thrown.
"We try to do what we can inside and we're fortunate to have a good inside facility, but it's tough. It's mentally tough for the kids because they want to be out here and playing full speed."
In the opener, Bryzn Witcher took the mound and gave up just three hits and three runs in 6-1/3 innings - the big blow being a homer by Seth Germann in the third. The senior righthander struck out six.
Tevin Lee hit a two-run blast in the third inning for the Indians, who also manufactured a run in the fifth but stranded eight runners in seven innings.
"We had some younger kids that came up and contributed," Geiger said. "We got great pitching from Bryzn; he's had a couple good solid outings this year. He hasn't been able to pitch in two weeks which is tough. He threw a great game and we just made a few little mistakes and mental errors."
Du Quoin got into a slugfest with Flora but came out on top. Lee stayed hot with an RBI double in the first inning and ended up 2-for-3 with three runs scored - he was also plunked.
Owen Bradley also had a run-scoring double - with a bit of trouble on the basepaths - while Nick Depyatic and Will Woodside also had key hits for the Indians.
"The second game, we had some better at-bats and drove runners in when we needed to," Geiger said. "And we took advantage of passed balls and errors. We've been trying to tell the kids we're going to be aggressive on the bases."
Zimmerman and Bradley shared the pitching duties against the Wolves.
Du Quoin was scheduled to play at Carterville on Monday to open the SIRR Mississippi Division portion of the schedule. The Indians are also slated to host Pinckneyville on Tuesday, host Freeburg on Wednesday and travel to Sparta on Thursday.