SIJHSAA State Softball: #204 Advances, St. Bruno/Tamaroa Ousted

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A walk-off inside-the-park home run from Maddie Jones in the bottom of seventh pushed Pinckneyville (#204) to its first ever berth in the Southern Illinois Junior High School Athletic Association (SIJHSAA) Class S State Softball final four.

Jones' blast ended a dramatic 9-8 victory over Grayville (Grade School) Saturday afternoon and advanced the Lady Tigers into Wednesday's semifinals.

At 1 o'clock, they'll meet defending state winner Galatia (Junior High School) with the survivor moving into Friday's state finals to play either Highland (St. Peter's/Paul) or Giant City.

The Lady Tigers are now 15-12 and have won three straight one-run games in tourney play.

#204 raced ahead of Grayville's Lady Bison with a big third inning.

Run-scoring hits from Megan Bagley and Leigha Yeager knocked home the first two runs with three more crossing the plate after back-to-back errors by Grayville.

In the fifth, trailing 8-2, the Lady Bison took advantage of six Lady Tigers errors to pull even at 8-8. Grayville had just two hits in the frame.

Jones' hit hen ended things leading off the seventh, sailing well over the leftfielders head.

At the plate, Jones was 2-for-4 with Alyssa Hirsch joining Bagley and Yeager in the hit parade.

Winning pitcher Caitie Opp worked all seven innings, striking out nine while surrendering just seven hits.

Galatia eliminated St. Bruno/Tamaroa 10-1 in the first game Saturday. SB/T ended its season with an 18-4 record.

In the Class M State quarterfinals-held Saturday at Centralia-Trico (Junior High School) advanced into a semifinal bracket opposite Nashville (Middle School). The Lady Pioneers, coached by Du Quoin's Steve Toler, blanked Goreville 3-0.