BASEBALL: Smith, Chapman pitch Jr. #1 to sweep of Benton
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville-Du Quoin American Legion Posts 2504 & 647's Junior #1 team got two sharp performances on the hill from starters A.J. Smith and Luke Chapman on Wednesday, leading to a sweep of the doubleheader with Benton by scores of 4-1 and 8-0.
Smith fanned thirteen Benton hitters in game one, allowing three hits and three walks in the complete game victory. In the nightcap, Chapman tossed six scoreless frames, allowing three hits and striking out eight before Nolan Luke closed things out in the seventh.
Game one stood 0-0 until the bottom of the fifth when back-to-back Benton errors allowed Caleb Dahn to score and Daulton Bigham to wind up at third base. Bigham would score when the next batter, Cole Bigham, drove a sacrifice fly to left field to make it 2-0 Pinckneyville-Du Quoin.
Luke reached on an error in the sixth then was at third after a double by Joey Burris. Brenden Shepard followed with an RBI single, then Smith smacked a sac-fly to right to give 2504/647 a 4-1 edge.
Shepard (1-3, RBI) and Burris (2-3, 2 2B) had the only hits for the home squad in game one.
After the break, Chapman went to work retiring the first six hitters he faced while a Benton passed ball in the bottom of the first gave him and P-DQ a 1-0 advantage.
Chapman would have to work around base runners in the next three innings, but would strike out the last four hitters he faced before exiting.
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin tacked on two runs in the third on RBI by Shepard and Dahn, another in fourth on an RBI by Lucas Carter, and four more in the fifth as Benton's pitching began to suffer control problems with four walks in the inning.
2504/647 totaled six hits in game two, one apiece from Smith (1-4), Shepard (1-3, RBI), Dahn (1-2, BB, RBI), C. Bigham (1-3), Carter (1-2, 2 BB) and Kody Hess (1-2, BB).
In other American Legion action, Pinckneyville-Du Quoin's senior team won 22-15 in Herrin while the Junior #2 team lost 9-6 at Chester.
On Thursday, the senior bunch hosts Steeleville at Rigdon Field while the Junior #1's are at Orient. The Jr. #2's return to action on Saturday at Steeleville.
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