Post #2504 Shocks Top-Seeded Marion
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ As it turned out, Marion's first opponent in the 25th District tournament was none other than Pinckneyville Post 2504 Saturday morning.
And much to Marion's surprise, No. 8 seed Pinckneyville stunned the top seed by holding on for a 7-5 victory at Riverside Park.
"I knew they were a good team coming in, but they were just young. They can hit the ball. They make all of the plays they need to make," Haub said. "They wanted the game. We toyed around with them being a veteran team like we are and thought we could score late and pull it out. It didn't work out that way."
Marion (25-3) combined to score 20 runs in two regular-season victories over Pinckneyville, taking the first meeting 10-5 and following that up with a 10-6 win.
However, Pinckneyville (5-11) held the upper hand from the start to win its second straight game in the tournament.
"We scored on them during the regular season, so we talked about that before the game today," Pinckneyville head coach Dave Sanders said. "We knew we could score on them, but we just had to keep them from scoring. For the most part, our pitching and defense did that."
Post 2504 staked out an early lead with a four-run second inning against Marion starter Tyler Sopczak.
Michael Rakers led off by reaching on an error before Drew Dudek and Matthew Nichols followed with one-out singles to load the bases.
After Sopczak's second strikeout of the inning, Matt Gill delivered a two-run single and Garrick Hale added a two-run double.
Marion cut its deficit in half with single tallies in the third and fifth after Post 147 stranded five runners on base in the first two innings.
In the third, Matt Caraway hit a two-out single and advanced to second when the left-fielder misplayed the ball. Tyler Thomas then ripped an RBI double to right-center field. Travis Cripps made it 4-2 in the fifth when his run-scoring double plated Kenton Parmley, who singled with one out.
But those are the only two runs Marion would score against Pinckneyville starter Nichols, who worked six innings and scattered seven hits to pick up the win.
"We got a real good pitching performance from Matt," Sanders said. "He's going to go out there and throw strikes. He's not going to blow anybody away. He counts on his defense, and they really came through today."
Pinckneyville tallied its fifth unearned run in the fifth against Sopczak, who worked six innings and surrendered nine hits and zero earned runs with 10 strikeouts against three walks.
Parmley relieved him and threw a perfect seventh before an error on a strikeout began Pinckneyville's eighth. Post 2504 tallied two insurance runs - both unearned - to lead 7-2 entering the top of the ninth.
That's when Marion made a comeback attempt, taking advantage of five walks from relievers Christian Shopinski and Hale to get within two runs. But Hale struck out David Schwartz to end the rally and the game.
"Garrick always makes us nervous whether we have a 10-run lead or whatever," Sanders said. "But he always finds a way to get through it."
Marion, which went through the 25th District regular season with a perfect record, left 12 runners on base and was limited to just eight hits.
"We really couldn't get the big hit when we needed it. We always seemed to have the right guys coming up," Haub said. "The hitting just wasn't there. I think they were throwing at a speed we couldn't hit."
Pinckneyville advances to play No. 6 seed Sparta (15-7) at 5 p.m. Monday in a winner's bracket semifinal.
"We have to do this every game," Sanders said. "We're real young. All of our kids are actually junior legion age, so we have to play solid every game like this to win."
Meanwhile, Marion dropped into the dreaded loser's bracket and lost 10-8 to No. 5 seed Steeleville Sunday.
"This was a total disappointment without even having to say it," Haub said. "The better team won today. "
Marion 001 010 003 - 5 8 4
Pinckneyville 040 010 02x - 7 9 2
Sopczak, Parmley (7) and Allred. Nichols, Shopinski (7), Hale (9) and Dudek. W - Nichols. L - Sopczak. S - Hale. Top Hitters - Marion: Parmley 2-4, Cripps 2-5 (2B, 2RBI), Caraway 1-3, Thomas 1-4 (2B, 2RBI), Allred 1-3 (RBI), Schwartz 1-5. Pinckneyville: Gill 2-5 (3B), Hale 3-4 (2RBI), Rakers 1-3, Dudek 2-4, Nichols 1-3. Records - Marion is 25-3, Pinckneyville is 5-11.