BASEBALL: Indians' struggles continue, Mater Dei wins Invite
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Saturday, April 2, was a busy day on the DuQuoin High School baseball field. The DuQuoin Invitational Pepsi Classic Invitational was in full swing. DuQuoin High School competed against Breese Mater Dei in the 10:00 game. Breese came into the game with a 4-0 record and increased that by one defeating DuQuoin 9-0 in seven innings.
Kegan Robbins started on the mound for DuQuoin, but suffered an injury after 2 2/3 innings. Robbins allowed 6 runs on 5 hits, had 3 strikeouts, and walked none. Brendan Fred relieved and pitched 4 1/3 innings allowing four runs on 5 hits, had one strikeout and walked two. DuQuoin committed three errors in the contest. Breese also had 3 errors. The winning pitcher for Breese was Schulte, who pitched seven innings allowing no runs, 5 hits, had 6 strikeouts and 2 walks.
Kegan Robbins was 1-1 in hitting. J.C. Davis was 2-3, Jake Stanhouse 1-3, and Travis Chapman was 1-3. All DuQuoin's hits were singles. Seth Baxter, Brendan Fred, Brandon George, Drew Bennett, Connor Wheeler, Dylan Pyron, and Will Alstat all had playing time for the Indians.
Coach Tim Craft commented that "overall in this game the pitching was pretty good. It was unfortunate that Kegan Robbins got injured. Fred did a good job of relieving. We had some bad luck with the sun and wind. The bottom line was we did not hit well enough to give us a chance to win. Defensively, we did not make many mistakes."
The second game was Breese Mater Dei vs. Flora. Breese won this game with a 5-4 score giving them a 2-0 record for the day.
The third game of the day was DuQuoin against Flora. We could call this game the battle of the son-in-laws. DuQuoin's Coach Tim Craft and Flora's Coach Brian Tackitt are married to sisters--Tim to Jennifer Vancil and Brian to Mindy Vancil. The two coaches are the son-in-laws of Debbie and David Vancil of DuQuoin.
Flora managed to win the third game of the day over DuQuoin 7-4. Connor Wheeler started on the mound for the Indians. Wheeler pitched 3 1/3 innings allowing 4 runs on two hits, had 5 strikeouts and 6 walks. He was relieved by Nate Boss, who went 3 1/3 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, two strikeouts and 6 walks. Boss got the loss for the Indians. Clay Henson started for Flora allowing 3 runs on 3 hits, with 3 strikeouts, and two walks.
The winning pitcher was Paul Knapp, who relieved in the fifth inning. Knapp allowed one run on 3 hits, had two strikeouts and 3 walks. DuQuoin tied the game at four in the fifth inning; Flora went ahead in the sixth scoring three runs to win the game. DuQuoin's record is now 1-6 overall.
Seth Baxter was 1-3. Trent Bigham was 1-3 with an RBI. J.C. Davis was 0-2, but had two walks. Jake Stanhouse was 2-4 with 2 RBI. Drew Bennett was 1-3. Connor Wheeler was 1-2. Brandon George, Nate Boss, Sam Gossett, Jon Boss, and Travis Chapman also saw action for the Indians. Flora committed two errors in the contest while DuQuoin had one.
"In the second game, we walked 12 batters. It is difficult to beat anyone when you walk that many batters," said Coach Craft. Both pitchers (Wheeler and Nate Boss) battled, and we had some calls that could have gone either way. We just could not get it together in this game."
On Friday, April 1, DuQuoin traveled to Mt. Vernon for a game. Mt. Vernon squeaked by with a 13-12 win. Coach Craft used three pitchers--Sam Kuhnert, Sam Gossett, and Trent Bigham in the game. Seth Baxter was 2-5 with a double, Kegan Robbins was 1-3 with a triple, J.C. Davis was 2-4 with a triple and an RBI, Brandon George was 1-4 with an RBI, Trent Bigham was 1-5, Connor Wheeler was 1-4 with an RBI and Drew Bennett was 3-4 with a double and two RBI.
DuQuoin has a busy week coming up. Monday is a trip to Sparta. Tuesday takes DuQuoin to Carterville. Wednesday is another travel day to Freeburg. Friday is a home game with Pinckneyville. On Saturday, DuQuoin baseball travels to Eldorado for two games. The conference schedule starts this week with the games at Sparta, Carterville, and with Pinckneyville at home.