Indian baseball poised to go deep in playoffs, if season ever gets going

<i>Editor's note: Illinois schools are closed at least through April 8, but the Call has been running profiles of the DHS spring sports teams, hoping the season will resume at some point.</i>

It's been five years since the Du Quoin baseball team made a run in the playoffs. But with eight returning starters, coach Kyle Geiger is hoping that when and if the Indians get on the diamond, they'll make a deep run in the postseason.

"To have that many guys come back and comfortable and know the system we were really excited to get started," Geiger said. "We had a really good two weeks of practice and then this happened.

"To be the one to give that news to the team was tough. I wish we could have got our first game in, but that wasn't allowed."

Geiger said it would have been nice to get one game in.

"I'm not looking forward to what's coming," Geiger admitted. "It's a disappointing situation. But, we're going to cross our fingers and hope that everybody stays healthy and we can have something out of this season, especially for the kids."

Last year the 15-14 Indians finished third in the SIRR Mississippi Division (6-4) behind Nashville and Carterville. The season ended badly, with a 10-0 five-inning loss to Zeigler-Royalton in the regional semifinals.

Since Du Quoin last won the regional and sectional titles in 2015 with a 26-11 record, the Indians have flirting with the .500 mark ever since. They went 13-12 and 16-16 in the final two years of coach Tim Craft's tenure and improved to 17-12 in Geiger's first season.

Geiger lost right fielder Josh Heape to graduation and sophomore pitcher David Lee to a knee injury during football. The 2020 squad will have four seniors, five juniors and four sophomores.

"Losing just one senior we were really, really looking for a good year," Geiger said. "With four seniors and five juniors we had a lot of guys play last year.

"Lee was a loss. He saw some innings last year as a freshman and would have contributed this year."

Geiger has four sophomores, but doesn't know how much of them will see playing time.

"I think anybody on my roster can play anytime, but the young guys need a little more experience and be at ease when they enter a game. I also got a couple of freshmen in mind I could bring up, but I will wait to see how that plays out."

The strength of last year's team and again this year will be pitching and defense. As a team the Indians finished with a 3.78 ERA.

"I have four pitchers who all started last year and that is a huge advantage for us," Geiger said. "My pitching last year was phenomenal, and two were sophomores. I've got a couple others that can come in and throw strikes and eat up some innings, and finish a game to give the other four a rest."

Junior right-hander Owen Bradley (4-4) appeared in 10 games with nine starts and three complete games, tossing 53.1 innings with 45 strikeouts and a 2.23 ERA.

Senior right-hander Alex Zimmerman (1-2) made nine starts with one complete game. He pitched 44.1 innings with 41 strikeouts and only 12 walks and a 2.19 ERA.

Junior right-hander Slade West (5-0) led the team with a 1.93 ERA on six starts and three appearances out of the bullpen. He pitched 36.1 innings with 24 strikeouts.

Junior right-hander Brian Winters (1-4) will join the starting staff full-time after making seven relief appearances and four starts last year. He pitched 29 innings and earned one save.

"Brian also plays short, second and third - he's kind of my versatile tool," Geiger said.

Also in the mix are sophomore right-hander Will Meadows, who made six appearances and pitched 13.2 innings; and sophomore left-hander Jake Rogers.

Meadows also played a couple innings in right field.

"Jake's my lefty. He didn't see any varsity time, but pitched on the JV team and this year he'll probably bounce back and forth," Geiger said. "He'll be that guy I came bring up in the middle or end of the week if I need some innings. I have a couple others, in case of emergencies, I can throw them in there and be comfortable with them on the mound."

The entire infield is also back. Senior Nick Depyatic is behind the plate, senior Braeden Pursell is at first, Bradley at second, Zimmerman at short and West at third base. Senior Alec Caldwell played left field last year.

"Defense was good last year," Geiger said. "Our pitching and defense kept us in a lot of games. I think we could have won eight to 10 more games if we could have drove in more runs."

The outfield is fluid with Caldwell, junior Konnor Harris, junior Austin Rice and Meadows battling for the positions. Depyatic will also play the outfield when he is not catching.

"Konnor is a center fielder, left fielder and backup catcher," Geiger said. "Austin floated back and forth from JV to varsity last year playing left field. Our outfield starters are going to whoever has the hot bat, so everybody has to play all three positions."

Offense was a major problem last year with Indians finishing with a .231 batting average. Zimmerman and Bradley were the leaders at .357 and .333, respectively. Bradley was the team leader with 23 RBIs with Zimmerman second at 18 followed by Pursell, Depyatic and West with 12, 11 and 10 RBIs, respectively.

"We struggled at the plate last year as a team and I don't know why," Geiger said. "We had a lot of speed. We were very aggressive with a lot of good base running with good jumps and good reads. We got a lot of guys in scoring position with less than two outs, but we could not drive them in. And it was all year."

Geiger said the coaches put in a lot of work this winter and made some changes.

"I was looking forward to seeing how they work," he said. "I had all the intent of playing some small ball, doing some bunting, hit-and-run and some squeezing trying to manufacture runs."

The Indians stole 124 bases and was caught just 15 times. Zimmerman came into his own last year, stealing 26 bases without being caught; he is 30-for-31 in his career. Winters was 23 for 29, Bradley was 19 for 21, Caldwell (14-15), Pursell (13-13) and Depyatic (11-13).

"Zimmerman wanted to get 30 stolen bases this year," Geiger said. "Uh, man, it's not going to happen now."