BASEBALL: Jr. Legion #1 pulls away from Chester
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[After three-and-a-half innings it appeared as though Chester, despite playing with eight men, might have a shot at beating Pinckneyville-Du Quoin's #1 Juniors on Sunday, building a 3-2 lead. But with only two men in their outfield, Post 487 finally ran into some trouble when base hits got past the infield and turned into a five-run fifth inning for Posts 2504 & 647.
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin went on to win 10-3 at Rigdon Field behind three RBI and three scoreless innings pitched from Nolan Luke.
Chester led 1-0 in the bottom of the second when Adam Banach tied the game for P-DQ with an RBI single to score Cole Bigham. Luke put 2504/647 on top 2-1 in the third with a ground-out to third base that brought in Brian Taylor who had walked to lead off the inning.
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin starter Caleb Dahn lost some of his command in the top of the fourth, walking three batters and giving up a pair of RBI singles that allowed Chester to reclaim the lead momentarily 3-2.
A.J. Smith singled with one down in the bottom of the fifth and went to third on a double by Dalton Bigham before scoring on a passed ball, then Luke drove a sacrifice fly to right to give 2504/647 the 4-3 advantage. Banach and Justyn Rushing would add RBI hits in the frame, extending the lead to 7-3.
Taylor, Luke and C. Bigham all drove in runs in the sixth as Pinckneyville-Du Quoin pulled away from the undermanned Chester squad.
Taylor (2-3, 2B, BB, RBI), Banach (2-3, 2B, 2 RBI) and Justyn Rushing (2-3, 3B, RBI) each had a pair of hits on Sunday. Smith (1-3, HBP), D. Bigham (1-4), Luke (1-3, SAC, 3 RBI), and C. Bigham (1-3, BB, RBI) also had hits.
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin Junior team #1 returns to action at 4:00 p.m. on Monday at Trico.
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