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BASEBALL: Opp fans 15, Pinckneyville-Du Quoin wins 5th District opener

Posted July 24, 2012 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[C.J. Opp fanned fifteen Aviston batters and Pinckneyville-Du Quoin moved on in the winners' bracket of the Senior American Legion 5th Division Tournament on Monday with a 5-2 victory at Rigdon Field in the Perry County Fairgrounds.

Opp scattered five hits and six walks over his eight innings of work to pick up the victory, Brett Warchol pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

"I've said it about C.J., his last two or three starts, that's a three or four-year guy right there," said Pinckneyville-Du Quoin coach Sean Patrick. "He's going to get a four-year degree playing baseball and he showed why he's a guy we can go to. He threw a lot of pitches, but he got us through eight and that was awesome."

"Then to turn around and be able to go with a right-hander who comes in and works hard in Brett Warchol to just throw gas, I don't think they saw that coming. They needed a hit and they couldn't get it done, so I'm real proud of our guys that pitched the ball today."

Opp allowed a lead-off walk to Aviston's Justin Becker in the bottom of the first, then struck out the next two batters before Luke Jackson singled for an RBI and a 1-0 lead for the Express. With two down in the top of the second, Opp got the run back with a solo blast off of Aviston lefty Blake Feldman.

"He's been struggling (at the plate), but I know he's been working on making adjustments and he came out and really helped himself tonight," Patrick said.

Nate Boss singled and scored in the fourth for Posts 2504 & 647 to make it 2-1, but Jackson doubled in the bottom of the fifth and came in to tie it on an RBI base hit by Black Benhoff.

John Goodrich doubled to start P-DQ's sixth and came in on an error for a 3-2 lead, then Opp, Shute, Goodrich and Boss all had hits in the seventh for a pair of insurance runs.

"When we got the two runs in that inning we put four or five good, solid hits together," said Patrick. "We've got the potential to hit that like, it's just making adjustments and doing it."

Opp struck out at least one batter in each of his eight innings and didn't allow a hit to the top three or bottom three in the Aviston order.

Boss (3-4) led the box score with three hits; Goodrich (2-4, 2B), Opp (2-4, HR), Bryant Shute (1-5, 2B) and Kyle Mueller (1-4) also had hits for Pinckneyville-Du Quoin.

"I'm really proud of our bench guys," Patrick said. "You've got (Zach Phillips) that sits the bench for eight innings and goes out in left field and makes a diving catch to finish the game, that's the kind of effort we're getting from everybody."

Jackson (2-4) and Benhoff (2-3, BB) each had two hits for Aviston.

In other action at the Division Tournament on Monday, Effingham knocked off Carrier Mills and Fairview Heights took care of 25th District tourney champ Murphysboro.

Pinckneyville-Du Quoin and Fairview Heights will meet on Tuesday at 3:30 in the semifinals of the winners' bracket with the winner getting either Alton or Effingham on Wednesday. The loser falls into the Wednesday 12:00 noon game with Carrier Mills on the losers' side.

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