Pinckneyville's Season Ends in Late Night Marathon
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ In a game that stretched to almost the wee hours of Friday morning, Pinckneyville (Post 2504) nearly extended its Senior American Legion Baseball season all the way to the Fifth Division Championships.
Pushing perennial powerhouse Murphysboro (Post 127) to the limit, Pinckneyville dropped a 16-14 , 3 1/2 hour slugfest in the losers bracket final of the 25th District Tournament.
The top two teams, Marion (Post 147) and Murphysboro, advance to the divisional.
Post 2504, which saw an early five-run disappear-and later rallied to trim a nine-run deficit down to just a single tally-ended its season at 9-15. The squad enjoyed a 3-2 run to its third place tourney finish.
"The errors and walks really hurt us tonight and that's probably the bottom line in this game," Post 2504 coach Alan Engelhardt said. "A lot of Murphysboro's runs were unearned. But I am proud of our efforts. Our kids just kept fighting back and were right there in the end. Murphysboro has an excellent team and we had plenty of chances."
Post 2504 touched Murphysboro hurler Cody Wheaton for five first inning runs, two coming on Michael Rakers' double. The margin reached five after Adam Barczewski swiped home and Bryant Shute scampered home on a wild pitch.
Murphysboro forced a 7-7 tie in the fifth before plating nine runs in its next three at-bats.
Trailing 16-9, Post 2504 made things interesting with a huge eighth inning. A dozen batters went to the plate during a seven-run frame.
Brandon Long, Christian Shopinski, Landon Chandler and Barczewski managed RBI basehits during the fray.
Down by just two runs, Pinckneyville appeared poised to tie things when Michael Rakers lined a shot up the middle. The ball was snared by Murphysboro shortstop Matt Hand, who turned the shot into an easy double play.
The final five Pinckneyville hitters were then retired in order to end things.
Taylor Beninati, the second of four Pinckneyville hurlers, suffered the pitching loss.
With seven fielding miscues, Post 2504 was also hurt by eight walks and three hit batters.
Shopinski was 3-for-6 at the plate with Long, Barczewski and Chandler all enjoying two-hit games.
Murphysboro (Post 127) 16,
Pinckneyville (Post 2504) 14
P'ville 500 020 070-14 15 7
M'Boro 002 544 10x-16 12 3
Nichols, Beninati (4), Shute (5), Thornton (7) and Barczewski. Wheaton, DeRocher (6), Nadolski (8) and Flamm. WP-Wheaton. LP-Nichols. SV-Nadolski. TOP HITTERS-P'ville: Long 2-5, Shopinski 3-6 (2B, RBI), Barczewski 2-4 (RBI), Shute 2-5, Chandler 2-4 (RBI). RECORDS-Post 2504 ends 9-15. Murphysboro is 21-8.