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BASEBALL: Shepard's 5 RBI help P'ville-Du Quoin Jr. #1 advance

Posted July 23, 2012 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Brendon Shepard drove in five runs on a pair of doubles and Pinckneyville-Du Quoin (#1) advanced to the winners bracket semifinals of the 25th District Junior American Legion baseball tournament with a 9-6 win over Sparta on Saturday afternoon in Steeleville.

Nolan Luke and Joey Burris also had two RBI each in the game for Posts 2504 & 647, which will face tournament host Steeleville at 5:00 p.m. on Monday at the high school. P-DQ led the game 9-0 before fighting off a late charge from Post 396.

"We don't have that killer instinct, that's the problem," said Pinckneyville-Du Quoin coach Alan Engelhardt. "We did a great job of getting the lead, then we were just kind of happy to be where we were. We've got to do a better job of finishing teams off when we get a chance to, but you're happy building that kind of lead obviously."

Pinckneyville-Du Quoin started fast, plating five runs in the top of the first inning. Brian Taylor led off with a single, then A.J. Smith doubled him to third in front of an RBI single by Burris. A fielder's choice and a pair of hit batters later Burris was forced home for a 2-0 lead. Shepard followed with a two-out, bases-clearing double to make it 5-0.

Left-hander Cole Bigham got the start for 2504/647 on the hill and after a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first, he immediately had to pitch his way out of a jam. Despite allowing a pair of singles in the inning, Bigham cut off Sparta without a run and would go on to retire ten of the next thirteen hitters.

Burris drove in Kody Hess after Hess led off the top of the fourth with a double, then Nolan Luke and Shepard accounted for the RBI in a three-run fifth for Pinckneyville-Du Quoin.

With a 9-0 lead, C. Bigham ran into some trouble again in the fifth when five hits and two walks allowed resulted in five Sparta runs. Braden Kitowski came in for the save allowing one run on two hits in the seventh.

"It's hot, Cole got a little fatigued and started to get (the ball) up, so Braden came in, got the ball down and got ground balls," Engelhardt said. "We made plays behind him, we played pretty well defensively today. "

The game could have been even closer than it ended up. On two separate occasions, Sparta hitters sent balls to the fence in centerfield only for Taylor to track them down, hit the cut-off man and get the runner out trying for an extra base.

"We did a nice job of throwing it in and hitting a couple relays there, they ran themselves out of a couple innings," said Engelhardt. "Brian did a good job of getting it in and both times we cut it and made nice plays on it."

C. Bigham gave up five earned runs on ten hits and three walks with a pair of strikeouts and got the win for 2504/647.

Shepard (2-3, 2 2B, 5 RBI), Burris (2-4, R, 2 RBI), Taylor (1-4, R), Smith (1-4, 2B), Luke (1-3, 2 R, 2 RBI), Hess (1-1, 2B, 2 BB, R), Kitowski (1-1), C. Bigham (1-2, HBP, 2 R) and Dalton Bigham (2-4, 2 2B, 2 R) all had hits against Sparta.

Engelhardt said he is leaning towards right-hander Caleb Dahn on the mound against Steeleville Post 480 on Monday.

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