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SOFTBALL: Du Quoin will play for first Sectional title after beating Massac County 5-4

Posted May 24, 2012 11:00 pm

Patricia Ferrari & Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Already in the Du Quoin High School record books for most team victories and winning just the second softball Regional title in school history, the Indians added to their legacy on Wednesday with a 5-4 Sectional semifinal win over Massac County. Alexis Kohrs' two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning provided the tying and go-ahead runs for the Indians, who will play in their first Sectional championship game at 11:00 a.m. this Saturday when they meet Nashville at Greg Hale Field in Pinckneyville.

"That's (Kohrs') limelight, she strives for that a little bit," said DHS head softball coach Jason James. "She's come over and been a big spark plug, a captain for us, it's been good."

Massac County coach Pat Clark saw a close game coming and gave his team credit for battling back when they got behind.

"Two equally matched teams, it just came down to who made the big play or who got the big hit, and unfortunately for us the two-run homer hurt," Clark said. "I thought we played a great team great for seven innings. I'm not ashamed of anything in regard to how our kids played, I thought they played an excellent ball game."

The game was a matchup between two River to River champions - both Massac County and Du Quoin won their respective divisions in the conference.

The Patriots struck first, scoring one run in the top of the first inning off of Kohrs, Du Quoin's starting pitcher. Kaylee Childers walked and two ground outs moved her to third before Courtney Copley singled her in for the game's first run.

Du Quoin answered in the bottom of the first with two runs of their own. Aubrey Davis walked, Kelsey Robinson singled, and Cassidy Rice hit a big double to drive them in for a 2-1 lead.

Kohrs threw up zeros in the next three innings, but had to earn them. The right-hander pitched out of jams in the second and third before getting her only 1-2-3 inning of the game in the fourth.

Childers then doubled to lead off the fifth for Massac County and scored on an error one batter later to tie the game, but not for long. In the bottom of the inning Amanda Williams singled for Du Quoin and Jessica Hirsch came through with a two-out double for an RBI and a 3-2 advantage.

The Patriots battled back a second time in the top of the sixth on a double by Josie Garduno that plated two more unearned runs, and Massac County led 4-3.

"We had a couple miscues there late, but we did battle back from that," said James. "I thought their pitcher did an excellent job of changing speeds and keeping us off-balance. She went away a lot and we tried to pull it early, then late in the game we started driving it to center and did a lot better job of staying on her."

In the bottom of the sixth, Du Quoin answered loudly. Rice singled with one out and then Kohrs parked one over the centerfield fence for her team-leading eleventh home run of the season.

"I really wasn't looking for anything, I just knew I had to put the ball in play," Kohrs said. "I already made up my mind I was going to swing, I'm going to do whatever I have to do to get Cassidy in."

"I figured it might as well go ahead and be me, to make up for the mistakes that I had maybe made in the beginning of the game knowing I wasn't fully on like (I was against Johnston City on Saturday)."

Kohrs may not have had her best stuff in the circle on Wednesday, but still threw the ball well enough for a win in a tight game, allowing only one earned run against her. She gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out three for her twenty-first victory of the season.

"(Massac County is) a good hitting ball team, one through nine," James said. "They're going to put the ball in play. We knew that coming in, we discussed it, they're going to put the ball in play."

Childers also went the distance for Massac County, taking the loss and allowing five earned runs on six hits and three walks with a pair of strikeouts.

Du Quoin made all of their six hits count - each one accounted for a run scored or batted in. Rice was the only Indian with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-3 with a double, a run scored and two RBI. Kohrs (1-3, HR, 2 RBI), Williams (1-3, R), Robinson (1-3, R) and Hirsch (1-3, 2B, RBI) had the other hits for DHS.

Childers led the Patriots (30-6) with two runs scored, finishing 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.

"Our kids love fastballs, I've known that all season," Clark said. "Obviously they were prepared for what (Kohrs) had to offer. We've seen her, some of our kids are familiar with her, so I know we were prepared for today. Some of the hard balls we hit just didn't find holes."

The softball Indians (36-2) split with the Hornettes during the regular season but edged them out for the conference title by a game. The winner of Saturday's 2A title game in Pinckneyville will advance to Monday's Super-Sectional at Nashville.

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