BASEBALL: Sparta holds off P-DQ Legion
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Pinckneyville-Du Quoin American Legion Posts 2504 & 647 Senior Baseball team mounted a late ninth-inning rally, but couldn't come through with the tying run at the plate, falling 6-4 at Sparta on Thursday afternoon.
Things were going well after Brandon Long's two-out RBI to drive in Adam Barczewski in the second inning, and Craig Dahlman's solo blast in the third for a 2-0 lead.
Bryant Shute had been solid through two innings of work on the mound, but allowed a pair of singles to net a run for Sparta in the third. Two more singles and a pair of walks led to another run for Post 396 in the fourth, and the game was tied 2-2.
It remained that way until the sixth, when Brandon George took over for Shute on the hill and surrendered a first-pitch solo home run to Seth Buch. Tyler Magruder followed with a doubled then later scored to make it 4-2 Sparta.
Post 396 tacked one on in the seventh and eighth innings, and Pinckneyville-Du Quoin was down to its' last three outs down 6-2.
Bryce Harre and Shute had one-out singles and both scored, but Dahlman was stranded at third after a two-out triple.
Shute allowed two earned runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out four and went 4-for-5 at the plate on offense. George surrendered four runs, two earned, on eight hits and a walk, fanning three.
Dahlman (2-5, 3B, HR, R, RBI), Barczewski (2-3, HBP, 2B, R), Harre (1-4, BB, R), Long (1-4, RBI) and Trent Bigham (1-5, 2B) also had hits for Posts 2504 & 647.
The loss drops the Pinckneyville-Du Quoin Senior Legion squad to 7-6 overall with their next game coming up on Sunday at Vandalia-Jerseyville (3:00 p.m. DH).
<element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ <element id="paragraph-1" type="body"></element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[</group>