Tuesday's prep baseball: Du Quoin tumbles from top spot after loss to A-J
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Prior to Tuesday's trip to Anna-Jonesboro, Du Quoin High School's baseball team had been scoring runs in bunches during River-to-River Conference play.
A-J pitchers Travis Smith and Brady Wright, however, found a way to keep the Indians in check.
Combining for a five-hitter, the Wildcats duo dominated a 6-1 victory over Du Quoin.
Both squads are 3-2 in SIRR play. The Indians, 10-6 overall, welcome Z-R-C to the Ballpark at DHS Wednesday. Game time is 4:30.
"We have to learn to win and give a consistent effort everyday," DHS coach Tim Craft said. "When you lose two key phases of the game-we didn't hit well or play defense well-it is tough to beat a good team like A-J. I didn't think our pitching was too bad at all today."
The Indians jumped to a short-lived 1-0 edge in the third as Kegan Robbins led off with a single and came around on a two-out RBI hit from Brandon George.
A-J scored three times-all unearned tallies-against Du Quoin starter J.C. Davis (2-2) in the third and things went quickly downhill for the Tribe.
The Wildcats added two more unearned tallies off reliever Trent Bigham in the fifth to seal its win.
Davis, Bigham and Tyler Shelton added hits for Du Quoin with Bigham's double the lone extra basehit.
A-J had 10 hits against Davis and Bigham.