BASEBALL: No-hitter caps frustrating tourney for Pinckneyville-Du Quoin
It was a fitting end to a frustrating weekend in Steeleville for the Pinckneyville-Du Quoin Senior American Legion baseball team on Sunday afternoon.
In the finale of the Harold Harmsen Wooden Bat Classic, the host squad Steeleville post 480 walloped Posts 2504 & 647 15-2 in four innings, getting a short-game no-hitter from hurler Wyatt Ruehling to finish off an 0-4 tournament for Pinckneyville-Du Quoin.
Orient won the five-team round-robin event crown after knocking off Sparta 5-1 earlier in the day on Sunday behind a pair of home runs by Hunter Pulley.
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin struggled in all three games they played - their game with Sparta was a forfeit - totaling just five runs on seven hits for the tournament.
The debacle began with Saturday's 4-0 loss to Orient in a well-pitched game by P-DQ left-hander Cole Bigham. Bigham surrendered only two earned runs on eight hits and a walk with nine strikeouts in seven innings thrown, but took the tough-luck loss as his offense managed just three hits off righty Dalton O'Connor.
Jacob Valier (1-3, BB), Tyler Rulevish (1-2, 2B, BB) and Jacob Louis (1-3) had the hits for 2504/647, but none of them came in the same inning. Pinckneyville-Du Quoin stranded eight base runners in the game, which was knotted at 0-0 until an error in the sixth brought in the first run for Orient.
Things got really ugly for P-DQ from that point on. They led 1-0 in their second game on Saturday against Trenton after an RBI single by Grayson Buza in the top of the third only to see Post 778 respond with seven runs four hits and three walks in the bottom of the inning. Blake Bernhardt homered for Trenton in the rally.
2504/647 chipped away two runs in the top of the fifth when two walks, a hit batter, a sacrifice by Buza and a base hit by Chandler made the score 7-3, but again, Post 778 answered. Ryan Meddows homered in a five-run rally for Trenton in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to 12-3, which ultimately was the final score.
Louis (1-3), Buza (1-3, RBI), Miles Chandler (1-3, BB, RBI) and Nolan Luke (1-2, R) had hits for Posts 2504 & 647.
Sunday's 15-2 loss to Steeleville was tied at 2-2 after one inning when Pinckneyville-Du Quoin scored on a bases-loaded walk to Buza, followed by a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch to Kyle Luke.
Post 480 took it from there, scoring three runs in the second inning and ten more in the third when a total of fifteen batters came to the dish.
N. Luke and A.J. Smith were named to the All-Tournament team for Posts 2504 & 647.
Pinckneyville-Du Quoin (5-15) will try to get things going later this week when the 25th District postseason tournament begins in Steeleville.