BASEBALL: #204 advances with victory over St. Bruno-Tamaroa

Pinckneyville District #204 recorded only four official hits - three in the first inning - but worked a dozen walks and got two strong innings on the mound from Landon Millikin to close out the game, as the Tigers knocked off St. Bruno-Tamaroa 9-5 in the first round of the Region III junior high baseball tournament on Tuesday.

The win advances #204 into Thursday's semifinals at Ewing against the regional host Warriors at 4:30 p.m.

The Falcons actually out-hit the Tigers 7-4, with two of those hits coming in their three-run top of the first - Grant Tanner's double and a base hit by Anthony Beaty.

The Tigers answered in the bottom of the inning, though, evening things up at 3-3 after hits by Ryder Parsons, Zach Martin (double) and Lucas Teel.

SB-T grabbed the lead again in the top of the second with help from two #204 errors and a single by Jimmy Reiman, but the Falcons left eight men stranded on base the rest of the way, and fourteen on for the game.

Walks and miscues allowed Pinckneyville to chip away a run in the second and tie the game in the third when L. Teel also had a single. Martin walked and scored in the fifth to give #204 the lead, then six walks in the sixth inning allowed the Tigers to tack on some insurance.

Parson (1-2, 2 BB), Martin (1-2, 2 BB) and L. Teel (2-3, BB) had hits for #204. L. Teel got the win on the mound with five solid innings, allowing seven hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts. Millikin fanned five and walk two (one intentionally) in his two innings of relief to get the save, pitching out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh.

Tanner (1-3, 2B, BB), Reiman (2-3, BB), Beaty (2-4), Nile Adcock (1-4, BB) and Carson Harris (1-4, BB) had hits for the Falcons.