BASEBALL: Marion senior team slips by P-DQ juniors
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[For seven innings, Pinckneyville-Du Quoin's #1 Junior American Legion team had gotten the better of Marion Post 147's Senior squad, but a two-run inside-the-park home run by Dylan Arvai in the top of the eighth inning turned the game around in a matter of seconds.
Marion added an insurance run in the ninth, one they ended up needing to hold on for a 4-3 win at Rigdon Field in Pinckneyville on Saturday in a nine-inning, non-district play matchup.
Posts 2504 & 547 got on the board first in the bottom of the second. Nolan Luke led off the inning with a single before Cole Bigham was hit by a pitch from Post 147 starter Garrett Marks, then Brendon Shepard loaded the sacks with a base hit. With one out, Lucas Carter singled to bring in a pair and P-DQ led 2-0.
A lead-off walk to Blake Gray came back to haunt 2504/647 hurler A.J. Smith in the third as Marion chipped away with a run, but Smith would settle in and retire twelve of thirteen batters while holding the one-run advantage into the top of the eighth inning.
It was in the eighth that another lead-off walk, this one to Trey Waldrop, would spell doom for Smith and Pinckneyville-Du Quoin. With Waldrop on, Arvai belted a high line drive to center just out of the reach of Kody Hess. By the time Hess tracked it down at the wall, Arvai was on his way home for a 3-2 Marion lead.
Cole Bigham came on for the last six outs, but did allow back-to-back hits by Gray and Dakota Pratt to lead off the ninth and make it 4-2.
2504/647 made their last gasp with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Joey Burris singled and Dalton Bigham doubled him in for an RBI, but Luke grounded out hard to the shortstop Arvai to end the game.
Luke finished 3-for-5 at the plate to lead Pinckneyville-Du Quoin. Burris (1-4, BB), D. Bigham (1-4, BB, 2B, RBI), Shepard (1-3) and Carter (1-3, 2 RBI) also hit safely against Marion.
Smith finished with six hits and three walks allowed to go along with six strikeouts in seven-plus frames on the hill.
For Post 147, Pratt (2-2, 2B, RBI) and Gray (2-3, BB) each had a pair of hits.
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin Jr. #1 (18-5) meets the younger P-DQ team #2 on Thursday at 5:00 p.m.
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