SOFTBALL: Nashville ends Du Quoin's dream season
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin's dream softball season was cut short on Saturday by state-bound Nashville and a two-hit effort in the pitching circle from freshman hurler Maci Ingram. Ingram's ten-strikeout performance and a go-ahead RBI single by Shaye Harre in the third allowed the Hornettes to advance 2-1 and claim the 2A Pinckneyville Sectional title.
"(Ingram's) got good movement on all of her pitches," said DHS head softball coach Jason James. "She kept us off balance and got us to pop up a few times. I thought we hit the ball hard, just right at people. They made a lot of nice catches."
The two thirty-plus-win teams combined for just five hits in the tightly-played game and scored in only two at-bats. Du Quoin's Jessica Hirsch tripled on an 0-2 pitch from Ingram to lead off the game in the top of the first, then Aubrey Davis brought her in with a ground-out RBI.
"It was a good pitch, but Hirsch just got a hold of it," said Nashville coach Dempsey Witte. "They got up 1-0, but once again we calmed down. I think our strength of schedule helps us keep our poise in those games. Maci really refocused very well, especially for a freshman. I thought the whole team rallied behind her, we had a lot of good energy, a lot of high-fives. We stayed calm today."
Alexis Kohrs toed the rubber for Du Quoin as she had in each of the Lady Indians' previous postseason games. Kohrs pitched around an error in the first and struck out four batters in a row before running into some trouble in the bottom of the third.
An error put Emily Thompson on second base to leadoff the inning and Jordi Harre bunted her to third for the first out. Nicole Deering grounded out to third bringing Thompson in safely to tie the game at 1-1.
Kiley Pelker followed with a two-out single and stole second early in the count to the next batter, Shaye Harre. With a base open, James elected to let Kohrs go after Harre rather than put another runner on base.
"We usually go after people, we've done that all year," James said. "We tried (to pitch around her at) our place and got beat 5-0, so I thought we'd keep the same game plan as we had (at Nashville) and just attack."
With an 0-1 count, Harre stroked a single to left and took second on the throw back into the infield for what turned out to be the game-winning RBI.
"The biggest thing about that inning is that she probably shouldn't have came up," James said. "We got ourselves in a little bit of a bind there to bring her up. Looking back on it, with a base open I'd probably put her on and let the four hitter try to handle it. (Shay Harre's) a good hitter, probably one of the better ones in the state."
Du Quoin went hitless after Hirsch's triple until the seventh when they needed a run to keep their season alive. Cassidy Rice and Kohrs both struck out, but Hadley Marek reached on an error at short and Magen Edwards followed with a base hit. Amanda Williams came up next and made good contact, but flied out to left field to end the ball game.
"That's what we've pretty much done all year; don't stop, play until that last out, see what happens," James said. "Maybe an error here or a base hit there can turn the game around. We almost got it."
Kohrs took the loss despite not allowing an earned run. She gave up three hits, one walk and a hit batter while fanning six in her six innings of work. Aside from the two hits in the third, her only other jam came in the sixth when she hit Harre and allowed a single to Hannah Young before getting a 4-6-3 double play ball.
Hirsch (1-3, 3B, R) put the ball in play each time she went to the plate in the final game of her stellar multi-sport career at Du Quoin High School. After an emotional and history-making run, she reflected on what this year's Lady Indians squad had accomplished.
"We worked so hard this summer and the past four years, it just shows that it paid off," said Hirsch. "We won the conference, we won our Regional, we broke the record for wins. It's just amazing to see how hard we worked and how much it paid off even though it didn't end the way we wanted."
"Hopefully they're going to be better next season, but we're going to leave this season knowing that we did something great and we accomplished a lot, a lot more than anyone thought we could."
The all-time leading scorer for the DHS girls' basketball program, Hirsch will move on this fall to John A. Logan college to play both hoops and softball. Hirsch was a four-year starter at shortstop for Du Quoin and credits James with much of her success on the diamond.
"A lot of the credit goes to Coach James, he's always in the weight room, he's always pushing us to do our best," said Hirsch. "A lot of coaches won't do the stuff that he does, put in the extra time that he does."
Fellow-senior Edwards will also move on in the fall, attending Rend Lake College where she will play softball for the Lady Warriors.
"Hirsch and Edwards gave us a lot this year," said James. "Edwards in that seven hole hit .370. Those are two kids that will be missed."
"Having that type of athlete (with Hirsch), her athleticism, you know you've got your shortstop every day for four years. She's truly going to be missed with her leadership and everything else that goes along with her."
Davis will slide from second to short next season when the Lady Indians will once again be one of the area's favorites to make some noise in the postseason.
After knocking off Du Quoin (36-3) on Saturday, the Hornettes (33-4) went on to book their trip to East Peoria when they edged Alton Marquette 3-1 in the Nashville Super-Sectional on Monday.
<element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ <element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ <element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ <element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ <element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ <element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ <element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ <element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ <element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[</group><group id="EAF499D2-E237-4C0E-A350-6A53D299E407" type="seoLabels"><seoLabels></seoLabels></group></idf></inlineX