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BASEBALL: Indians build momentum with third straight win

Posted April 23, 2012 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville continued to struggle offensively in their third straight loss and Du Quoin continued to build momentum with their third straight victory as the Indians short-gamed the Panthers 12-2 in five innings at The Ballpark at DHS on Thursday.

"We had a tough game on Monday and came back and won another tough game against Carterville, the kids have kind of pulled together (this week)," said Indians head baseball coach Tim Craft. "I think after that Sparta game we had some kids dig down and really put some effort into their play."

The Panthers led 2-0 in the bottom of the third with one out when suddenly things got away from them as starting pitcher Joey Burris walked the bases loaded before allowing a three-run double to Travis Chapman that put the Indians out in front to stay.

"The last two days we'd thrown strikes and gotten ahead of guys, and competed that way," said Pinckneyville head coach Alan Engelhardt. "Today, the first two innings I thought (Burris) did a good job, and he just lost it in the third. That cannot happen at the varsity level."

"You compound that with baserunning miscues by a junior and a senior, and two seniors had errors in the last inning to open the flood gates."

Chapman drove in five runs for Du Quoin, including a "walk-off" RBI on his single in the fifth.

"We started off a little bit slow, we were hitting the ball hard just hitting it right at them, but then they started falling and the momentum started to go our way," said Craft. "We were fortunate that they did bobble a few balls, and we took advantage of it. The kids really did a good job of just staying on top of them, putting the ball in play and putting pressure on them."

Noah Hepp singled and scored on a double by Trent Hicks in the bottom of the second, then Nolan Luke walked and scored on Burris' single in the third for the Panthers two runs.

After Chapman's bases-clearing double in the third for Du Quoin, the Indians would add two more on RBI hits from Garrett Dorsey and Dylan Pyron to make it 5-2.

Chapman plated another run with a sacrifice fly in the fourth to bring in Nate Boss, then N. Boss, Jon Boss and Austin Mansker each had hits in the big six-run fifth inning for the home squad that ended the game.

"That's what teams should do, but that's also what happens when you put your head down and don't compete," Engelhardt said. "I don't know what it's going to take, you expect this group to compete, and when we have gotten behind this year, we have not competed. We did not compete today."

Camdon Mercier toed the rubber for DHS, going all five innings and allowing two earned runs on seven hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

"We've had good pitching all week," Craft said, "and Pinckneyville's a good team. They've got kids who can swing the bat, and to keep them to two runs is a pretty good game."

Burris went two-and-a-third innings and allowed five earned runs on four hits and four walks with two Ks. Trent Hicks, Noah Hepp and Justin Bumann shared relief duty with only Bumann (two-thirds IP, 1 H) getting off the field without an earned run.

Chapman (2-3, 2B, SAC, R, 5 RBI), Dorsey (2-3, R, RBI), N. Boss (2-3, BB, 2 R, RBI) and Mansker (2-4, 2B, R, RBI) each had multiple hits for the Indians. Pyron (1-3, R, 2 RBI), Brenden Fred (1-2, BB, SAC, 2 R, 2 RBI), Camden Youngman (1-2, 3B, 2 BB, 2 R) and Jonah Spencer (1-1, R) also hit safely for Du Quoin.

For the Panthers, Hepp (2-2, R), Burris (1-2, RBI), Hicks (1-2, 2B, RBI), C.J. Opp (2-2) and Hunter Queen (1-3) had PCHS's seven hits.

While the Indians (11-8, 4-4) will look to build on their three-game winning streak on Saturday in a tough doubleheader matchup at Harrisburg, the Panthers (7-10, 1-6) will get the weekend off for prom.

"If nothing else (the time off) will let us coaches relax a little bit," Engelhardt said. "We're trying to figure things out and it starts with doing things right, and we're not doing that right now."

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