Monday's SIRR baseball: Pinckneyville outlasts Sparta

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville Community High School's baseball team needed 11 innings to keep pace with Perry County rival Du Quoin atop the River-to-River Conference's Mississippi Division baseball standings.

The Panthers outlasted host Sparta 6-2 in a three-hour marathon, improving to 3-1 in league play.

PCHS is 8-7 overall and hosts Chester Tuesday.

Drew Dudek pitched 10 innings and went 5-for-6 at the plate to lead Pinckneyville-doubling once and stroking four singles.

Dudek's double started the Panther game-tying rally in the seventh and a triple by Bryant Shute in the 11th with an RBI triple.

"What a gutsy and dominant performance by Drew Dudek," Panther coach Alan Engelhardt said. "He did a great job of keeping his pitch count down so we could keep sending him out there. And our defense really started to make plays behind him."

Dudek (3-1) whiffed 10 and scattered five hits before C.J. Opp pitched the 11th to finish things out.

Shute had the two-run triple and poked two hits along with Matthew Nichols and Adam Barczewski.

Sparta led 2-0 until the seventh when Dudek, Chandler and Shute connected for three straight safeties.

"It is always hard to go on the road and win in this conference," Engelhardt said. "So its really big for us to keep pace with Du Quoin and pick up another road win."