BASEBALL: Smith shuts down Murphy, P-DQ juniors advance
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Scoring nine runs on seventeen hits, Pinckneyville-Du Quoin's offense gave starting pitcher A.J. Smith plenty of support to work with on Tuesday - far more than the right-hander would need.
Smith fired a two-hitter to give 2504/647 a 9-1 win over Murphysboro and claim the winners' bracket of the Junior American Legion 25th District Tournament in Steeleville, in addition to securing a spot in the 5th Division Tournament at Vandalia this weekend.
"Obviously A.J. Smith threw the ball really well today," said Pinckneyville-Du Quoin coach Alan Engelhardt. "I think he threw 85 pitches or so through seven innings, he was just on top of it and overmatched them. That's where everything starts - with pitching. Our defense was really good behind him. We just played solid, that makes life a whole lot easier."
Posts 2504 & 647 got on the board first in the top of the second inning when Nolan Luke singled with one out and Brendon Shepard drove him in. After Shepard went to third on a passed ball, Justyn Rushing grounded to second for an RBI and a 2-0 lead.
Smith allowed a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning and allowed another batter to reach on a dropped third strike that went as a passed ball. With Murphysboro runners at second and third and two outs, a ball was hit to deep center for an RBI, but Brian Taylor tracked it down and hit Cole Bigham for the cut-off, who then fired to Joey Burris at third to nab the potential tying run.
"That preserved momentum," Engelhardt said, "where instead of them getting it right back to 2-2, we were still up 2-1, and then we started hitting."
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin had at least two hits in every inning but the first, three in both their three-run fourth and two-run fifth.
Rushing walked to start the fourth, went to second on a ground-out, then to third on Taylor's one-out single. Smith drove a sacrifice fly to center for an RBI, then Burris followed with a base hit to bring in Taylor to make it 4-1. Dalton Bigham tacked on another with his double moments later.
Taylor added an RBI in the fifth, D. Bigham and Smith both drove in runs in the seventh.
"We had a lot of guys hit the ball again tonight, it pretty much went down the order," said Engelhardt. "That's when you start getting dangerous, whenever you can do that."
Luke's four hits (4-4, 2 R) led the offensive outburst by P-DQ. Taylor (3-4, BB, 2 R, RBI), Burris (2-5, R, RBI), D. Bigham (3-5, 2B, 2 RBI), C. Bigham (1-5), Shepard (1-4, 2B, R, RBI), Rushing (2-3, BB, 2B, 3 R, RBI) and Kody Hess (1-4) also hit safely against Murphysboro.
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin will meet the winner of Wednesday evening's 5:00 p.m. losers' bracket final at 7:30 p.m. Murphysboro will meet either Steeleville or Orient to decide 2504/647's opponent.