BASEBALL: Legion 2504/647 flips the switch
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Trent Bigham posted his second win on the mound in as many games for the Pinckneyville-Du Quoin senior American Legion team on Sunday, propelling Posts 2504 & 647 into Monday night's final round of the 25th District Tournament at Ray Fosse Park in Marion with a 14-6 victory over Sparta Post 396.
"We thought in the fifth (Bigham) was starting to run out of gas a little bit," said Pinckneyville-Du Quoin coach Alan Engelhardt, "but he always has a way of finding a second wind and he did that again today. He threw the ball well, kept it down, threw strikes, kept his pitch count down to where he could go seven."
Adam Barczewski was 5-for-6 at the plate with a home run and four runs batted in for Pinckneyville-Du Quoin and Seth Baxter also provided a boost to the offense with a 2-for-4, 5-RBI day that included a 3-run homer.
"It was mostly just fastballs," Barczewski said, "upper half of the zone, I just got on them most of the time."
Just a day after pitching two innings for a win in P-DQ's walk-off victory over Marion on Saturday, Bigham went seven innings on Sunday, allowing 3 hits, 4 walks and a run while striking out five.
"I was hitting my spots with my fastball, my curveball was working pretty good to keep them off balance," Bigham said. "I knew my defense would make plays around me."
The defense did make plays, including a pair of 6-4-3 double plays to help get Bigham out of potential jams in the first and seventh innings.
"With Trent, you can go inside on anybody, because he throws hard enough," said Barczewski, Bigham's catcher on Sunday. "He established his curveball really early in the game, so they had to watch out for that."
Entering the District Tournament as the bottom seed (#6), Pinckneyville-Du Quoin has now assured themselves a spot in next weekend's Division Tournament, regardless of what happens in Monday's championship game.
Bigham picked up the first hit on offense in Sunday's game with a leadoff double in the second inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Baxter, then Marian Brammeier drove in Barczewski, who had singled.
Posts 2504 & 647 grabbed a 3-0 lead in the third when Bryce Harre singled and later scored on a error. RBI hits from Craig Dahlman and Barczewski in the fifth made it 5-0.
Bigham allowed a leadoff walk to Tyler Magruder in the fifth that came back to bite him for his only run allowed, but his teammates got it right back in the top of the sixth when Harre tripled and scored on a wild pitch.
Baxter and Harre added RBI's in the top of the seventh, then Baxter cranked a three-run shot over the left field fence in the eighth for an 11-1 advantage.
Sparta managed to pick up five runs in the bottom of the frame on an off-night for Sam Kuhnert, but Harre came in to get the last six outs of the game.
Posts 2504 & 647 totaled 14 hits on Sunday, giving them at least 10 in each game of the tournament thus far. Joining Barczewski and Baxter with multiple hits were Harre (3-6, 2 R, RBI, 3B) and Shute (2-5, 2 R, BB). Dahlman (1-6, RBI) and Bigham (1-4, 2 R, BB, 2B) also hit safely against Sparta, the tournament's fourth seed.
"The big thing is getting guys on base," Engelhardt said, "and (Baxter and Barczewski) did a tremendous job. Guys were on base and they took RBI cuts. I think sometimes we get caught up with taking bad swings with guys on base, and (Sunday) they were all hitting the ball on the nose with guys on base."
Saturday's second round game for Pinckneyville-Du Quoin featured a matchup of two (and eventually, three) of the area's top hurlers this season in Marion's imposing 6'6 lefty Nick Andros and Post 2504 & 647's hard-throwing right-hander Brandon George. Both All-South pitchers struggled at times, but also flashed the brilliance that helped get their respective high school teams (Goreville & Du Quoin) to third place finishes in Peoria.
Neither factored in the decision, however, as after a late Marion Post 147 comeback tied the game after eight innings, Dahlman's RBI single in the bottom of the ninth off of reliever Connor Bird scored Harre and gave Pinckneyville-Du Quoin an 8-7 victory.
Baxter's RBI single in the second inning made it 2-0, then RBI's from Shute, George and Dahlman in the fifth gave Posts 2504 & 647 a 6-2 edge. Top-seeded Marion capitalized on four walks by George in the bottom of the second for their two runs.
George left after six innings of work with a four-run lead, but Shute couldn't close it out on the hill. Post 147 got three in the seventh and two more in the eighth before Bigham was called upon to finish the job.
Harre singled with one out in the ninth, Shute grounded out to short, then George walked to set up Dahlman's walk-off hit, which traveled to the fence in right-center field. The first baseman from Nashville was hitless in his last seven plate appearances before the game-winner.
Every hitter in the Pinckneyville-Du Quoin lineup had a hit against Marion on Saturday. Harre (2-for-4, 3 R, 3B, BB) and Baxter (2-4, 2 RBI) each had two. Shute (1-3, R, BB, SAC) delivered three RBI's.
George struck out five and allowed two runs on four hits and nine walks in his six innings of work.
Andros, who's only loss during the 2011 IHSA regular season came against Pinckneyville on April 9, surrendered seven runs on six hits and three walks while fanning ten.
On Friday, Noah Hepp took the mound for Pinckneyville-Du Quoin and dominated Orient with a complete game shutout as Posts 2504 & 647 knocked off the fifth seed 7-0.
"(Hepp) pitched well, 17 strikeouts, pretty crazy," said Posts 2504 & 647 coach Derek Beninati. "Definitely his best performance of the year so far. He never got tired, never wanted to come out."
To go along with the 17 punchouts, Hepp gave up just 4 hits and 5 walks and didn't allow a runner past second base until the ninth inning.
"Just attacking," Hepp said when asked about game plan on the mound Friday.
Oreint starter Koty Rains matched Hepp for the six innings, but Pinckneyville-Du Quoin started to rough up the righty in the seventh and eighth.
"It was basically just a matter of our guys staying back and not getting out in front of the ball," Beninati said. "We swung and missed at too many curveballs that weren't strikes. We made a little adjustment and started waiting back, and I think their pitcher kind of got a little tired too."
At the dish, Shute (2-5, R, 2 2B), George (2-5, 2 R, RBI, 2 2B), Bigham (2-3, R, BB), Barczewski (1-4, 2 RBI, 2B), Baxter (1-4, R, 2B), Long (1-4, 2 RBI) and Taylor Beninati (1-4, R) each had hits.
Barczewski had seven hits over the weekend to lead the team. Harre, Shute and Baxter each had five.
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin (11-8) faces the winner of Monday's 5:00 p.m. game between Sparta and Marion at 8:00 p.m. to decide the 25th District Champion and top seed heading into the Division tournament.
Since the format of the tournament is double-elimination, if Posts 2504 & 647 lose on Monday, a second championship game is scheduled for Tuesday evening at 6:00 p.m.
Despite entering the tournament as the sixth and bottom seed, Pinckneyville-Du Quoin's talented roster left on-lookers no doubts about the legitimacy of the ball club, which has now won five of their last six games.
"We've had the potential to be great, we just haven't played to our potential all year," Barczewski said.
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