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BASEBALL: 2504/647 splits first two at Jr. State Tourney

Posted July 30, 2011 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville-Du Quoin Posts 2504 & 647 kicked off the Junior American Legion State Tournament on Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m., defeating 4th Division representative Danville 8-3, but were knocked into the losers' bracket in the 2:00 p.m. game, losing to Alton 12-10 after leading by as many as six runs.

"It's tough playing two in this heat," said 2504/647 coach Derek Beninati, whose team played both of their games while the temperature hovered near 100 degrees with little or no cloud cover.

"We hit the ball well enough, we pitched well enough at times, but once things start snow-balling someone has to step up and make plays to get us out of there."

In the tournament's opening bout, C.J. Opp threw all seven innings for a complete game victory against Danville, allowing six hits, two earned runs and three walks to go along with nine strikeouts.

"(Opp) pitched a great game, it's hot, he battled," Beninati said. "He just kept throwing strikes, didn't walk very many people, let our defense work. We made a couple errors, but they didn't hurt us at all."

Opp was handed a 2-0 lead before he took the mound after RBI's from Hunter Queen and Travis Chapman in the top of the first inning, and the left-hander allowed just one hit through his first four innings of work.

Pinckneyville-Du Quoin built on their lead in the fifth when Queen and John Goodrich reached base with one out for Joey Burris, who singled for a pair of runs batted in. Burris would score on a wild pitch before the half-inning ended with 2504/647 ahead 5-0.

An error allowed Daulton Dieu to get Post 210 on the board in the fifth, as the Danville first baseman walked and scored when Luke Chapman mishandled the ball at first base to allow Zach Girton to reach.

2504/647 rallied right back, getting three insurance runs in the sixth with help from hits by T. Chapman and Zach Phillips, and RBI's by Queen and Dylan Hardin.

"It was nice to get the bats going, it relieves a little bit of the pressure," said Beninati. "It was a well-played game all-around for us."

Opp ran into some trouble in the bottom of the sixth, giving up three base hits that led to a pair of runs, but pitched around an error in the seventh to finish the job.

T. Chapman was the only 2504/647 player with multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with a run scored and a run driven in. Hardin (1-4, 2 R, RBI), Queen (1-4, 2 R, 2 RBI), Goodrich (1-2, R, 2 HBP), Burris (1-2, R, 2 RBI, BB, SAC) and Phillips (1-3, R) also had hits off of Danville pitching.

Champions of the 5th Division, Alton Post 126 (Junior #1) finally met up with 2504/647 in round two of the state tournament bracket after their #2 team thumped P'ville-Du Quoin at the Division tournament on Monday at Gordon Moore Park. For all but two innings, the state tournament's host looked like the better team, even though they received their bid to the six-team event by virtue of the games being held at Rigdon Field in the Perry County Fairgrounds, and not by placing in the top two in Alton earlier this week.

Those two innings were costly, with walks and errors piling up in a five-run third and a six-run sixth for Post 126, as they came back from down 10-6 after five to win 12-10.

"They had two big innings, take away those two innings when we made mistakes and walked a few kids, we win that game," Beninati said. "We couldn't stop the bleeding."

Just like the Danville game earlier, Posts 2504 & 647 jumped out 2-0 on their opponent in the first inning when Burris drove in Goodrich and Opp with a two-out single. Matt Halliday walked and scored for Post 126 on Ben Baldridge's bases-loaded walk in the top of the second, as Hardin began to lose some of his control on the hill.

Four walks and a hit batter in the top of the third inning led to five more runs for Alton, but Hardin drove in Evan Chapman and Phillips with a single in the bottom of the frame to make it 7-6 in favor of Pinckneyville-Du Quoin.

Hardin settled down to make it through four innings, and in the bottom of the fourth, Queen, Goodrich, Opp and Burris all had hits with no outs to spark a three-run rally for 2504/647, which led 10-6.

Charlie Howard, Post 126's third pitcher of the game, shut down the Pinckneyville-Du Quoin offense from that point on.

With L. Chapman on in relief of Hardin, Alton began to rally in the sixth. Three walks, a single and an error later, the score stood at 10-8, and E. Chapman was called upon to try and silence Post 126. Ronnie Winasky blooped a singled to right, then Nick Dunphy singled on the infield to extend the inning to Nick Droste, who doubled to give Alton the lead 12-10.

"Can't really do anything about that," Beninati said of the fortunate base hit by Winasky. "We had the infield in and couldn't get back to it, it's a tough break."

2504/647 loaded the bases with three walks in their half of the seventh, but Goodrich tagged a ball right at centerfielder Winasky for the final out.

Goodrich's 3-for-5 (2 R, 2 RBI) showing at the plate was a team-best against Alton. Hardin (2-5, 4 RBI), Queen (2-4, 2 R, BB, 2B), Burris (2-4, 2 RBI, 2B), Opp (1-2, 2 R, 2 BB, 2B), E. Chapman (1-3, R, RBI, SAC), and T. Chapman (1-4) accounted for the other hits for 2504/647.

Pinckneyville-Du Quoin will meet Champaign Post 24 at 1:30 on Friday afternoon in hopes of staying alive in the state tournament. A win and 2504/647 will play a second game at 6:30 p.m. against either Danville or Belleville.

In other action at the Legion State Touranment, Limestone knocked off Belleville in the 11:30 a.m. game and Champaign later on at 4:30 p.m.

Alton and Limestone will meet at 4:00 p.m. on Friday to decide the champion of the winners' bracket. The loser meets the winner of Friday's 6:30 p.m. game on Saturday.

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