DU QUOIN — After missing all of last spring due to the pandemic, the Marion Wildcats started the 2021 baseball season with a bang, hitting four home runs on the way to a 9-3 win over Du Quoin.

Marion’s first batter of the season, Lukas Shrum, went deep to set the tone. In a unique twist to the COVID sports seasons, Shrum also scored the Wildcats’ first points of the football season not quite four weeks ago.

Junior Karsten Stotlar hit one of Marion’s four homers, in addition to pitching five scoreless innings for the win. Chase Austin and Nehemiah Goodman also hit home runs for the Wildcats.

A day after scoring 18 runs in their season opening win over Chester, the Indians did not get on the scoreboard until the seventh, when they scored three times, thanks to a two-run double from Owen Bradley and an RBI double from Owen Cornett.