Friday's prep baseball: Tough road losses for PCHS, Tribe
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Friday proved to be a tough day on the road for Perry County's two prep baseball teams as both dropped key River-to-River Conference games in Mississippi Division play.
Pinckneyville (10-8, 4-2) fell into a tie for the division lead after an 8-2 loss to co-leader Anna-Jonesboro.
Du Quoin (11-7, 3-3) is now a full-game back in the standings after a disappointing 3-1 road loss to Sparta.
Both teams bounce back into SIRR play Monday as the Panthers visit Nashville and Du Quoin goes to Chester.
"Defensively, we cost ourselves the baseball game," PCHS coach Alan Engelhardt said of the setback at A-J. "We gave up seven unearned mostly because we took a step backwards in the attitude department."
Pinckneyville manged just four hits against A-J hurlers David Frank and Brady Wright.
Bryant Shute smacked a pair of solo homers to account for both Panther runs.
Singles by Matthew Nichols and Adam Barczewski were the only two other PCHS safeties.
Drew Dudek (3-2) took the pitching loss for Pinckneyville, striking out seven and giving just four hits. None of the runs scored against the senior were earned.
At Sparta, the host Bulldogs scored a pair of unearned runs to edge Du Quoin and deal the Tribe's bid for a third consecutive SIRR title a serious blow.
The Indians had only five hits and scored in the third inning when Tyler Shelton tripled and came around on an RBI single from Trent Bigham.
Bigham (3-1) struck out 10 on the mound, giving just five hits.
Drew Bennett, Sam Gossett and Seth Baxter also hit safely for the Tribe.