Steeleville advances in 25th District tourney
<span>STEELEVILLE -- Cody Eggemeyer nearly did it all for Post 480, as Steeleville defeated Carterville, 2-1, on Sunday to advance to the semifinals of the American Senior Legion 25th District tournament at the Harold "Hattie" Harmsen Field of Dreams.</span>
<span>Eggemeyer went the complete game on the mound, allowing one earned run on eight hits with a walk and five strikeouts to improve to 6-2 on the season. A model of efficiency, the right-hander needed only 62 pitches to get through six innings and had 91 entering the ninth.</span>
<span>"Coach said he was going to put Wyatt (Ruehling) in and he asked me if I wanted to start it off," Eggemeyer said of the ninth. "I said 'yeah' and he said 'finish it off.'"</span>
<span>And finish it off he did, needing just seven pitches to get through a 1-2-3 ninth inning to win the game and put Steeleville a win away from advancing to the 5th Division tournament in Carmi. The top two teams in the district tournament automatically advance to division competition.</span>
<span>"He's done that a couple of times this year, come out and the first two pitches in that ninth inning were huge with two ground balls to third," said Steeleville coach Darryl Winkelman of Eggemeyer, who also went 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and a run scored. "And he looked like he still had some gas in the tank."</span>
<span>Steeleville will play the winner of Monday's 5 p.m. contest between No. 1 seed Murphysboro and No. 8 seed Orient at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Should Post 480 win again, the team will turn right around and play the championship game at 7:30 p.m.</span>
<span>"We've got who we want to throw next game," Winkelman said. "I have (Ryan) Stromeyer to go next game and Wyatt to close or pitch the next game."</span>
<span>Orient advanced to the quarterfinals without playing an inning on Sunday thanks to a forfeit by No. 9 seed Carbondale, which finishes the season at 1-17. The Express (7-10) won the Harold Harmsen Wooden Bat Classic two weeks ago during the Steeleville 4th of July Picnic.</span>
<span>"That's going to be a good game," Winkelman said of Orient and Murphysboro. "Orient is a pretty good ballclub, they won our wood bat tournament here. Honestly, anybody can win this tournament here."</span>
<span>In Steeleville's contest with Carterville, neither team scored until the seventh when Stromeyer and Eggemeyer drew back-to-back walks from Carterville starter Ashton DeRousse, who had allowed only one hit through six.</span>
<span>Eggemeyer later scored from third on a wild pitch to give Steeleville the 1-0 lead. Carterville responded with a run of its own in the bottom of the inning, but Post 480 got consecutive singles from Hunter Howie and Casey Wilson off Carterville reliever Kaleb Vaughn to start the eighth.</span>
<span>After a walk to Kramer Eggemeyer, his fourth free pass of the game, Luke Hartman hit a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in the go-ahead run.</span>
<span>"It's the old adage of baseball, good pitching gets good hitting out," said Carterville coach Bobby Jackson. "I think our kids battled, both teams battled and you get in the heat, both kids really pitched their guts out today and you'd hate for either one of them to lose."</span>
<span>Vaughn took the loss for Carterville, allowing one earned run on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts in two innings of relief.</span>
<span>After two days of rain delays, the tournament was shortened to a single-elimination competition instead of the traditional double elimination.</span>
Herrin 18, Sparta 0
<span>STEELEVILLE -- In the first upset of the tournament, No. 6 seed Herrin eliminated No. 3 seed Sparta 18-0 in seven innings.</span>
<span>Herrin compiled 20 hits against four Post 396 pitchers. Herrin built a 4-0 lead after four innings and scored a combined 13 runs in the sixth and seventh innings.</span>
<span>Todd Salger (5-1) took the loss for Sparta, his first on the mound for Post 396.</span>
<span> </span>