Published: May 07, 2008 12:10 pm            

Booher guides St. Elmo to victory

ST. ELMO — Brownstown High School was in St. Elmo Tuesday for a dandy of a game under the lights at Deken Park, falling to the Eagles 1-0 on Colton Booher's RBI single in the bottom of the eighth.

Booher's gamewinning hit came with two outs of Brownstown starter Jared Winters, who was locked in with 17 strikeouts and only two walk but took a tough loss on a four-hitter.

Zach Durbin led off the eight with a base hit, and pinch runner Bob Fritcher moved up to second on Wade Nevergall's sacrifice bunt.

After a strikeout for the second out, Booher hit a two-strike pitch back up the middle.

"This was as good of a high school game as you can get," said St. Elmo coach Ryan Beccue. "The pitching tonight was absolutely outstanding and the crowd was great."

Booher's hit earned him a pitching win as well; the senior needed just 85 pitches to throw all eight innings with eight strikeouts and a walk. He allowed just one hit, a single off the bat of none other but Winters in the top of the first inning.

St. Elmo improves to 8-7 with its fourth consecutive victory; the Eagles are at Ramsey today while Brownstown (7-8) hosts Sandoval Friday.

Brownstown---000---000---00--------0-1-1
St. Elmo--------000---000---01--------1-4-0
Winters and Tackett; Booher and Wright
Brownstown — Winters, single
St. Elmo — Nevergall, single; Booher, single, RBI; Morrison, single; Z. Durbin, single

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At Neoga

Lance Vonderheide drove in five runs on two singles and a double as Neoga downed visiting Okaw Valley (Bethany) 12-2 in six innings.

Bryn Price evened up his pitching record at 2-2 with the win, allowing five hits and two runs (one earned) while walking three and fanning two.

Austin Robinson hit a home run for Neoga (8-13) while Shaye Albert had three singles. The Indians are at Teutopolis Thursday to finish up a game suspended due to lightning Friday night.

Okaw Valley---002---000---------2--5-3
Neoga----------030---423--------12-11-1
Holt, Jennings (5) and Blakey; Price and Pikowski
Okaw Valley — Pierce, single; Burch, 2 doubles, RBI; Krutsinger, single; Calhoun, double
Neoga — Price, RBI; A. Robinson, single, home run, RBI; Albert, 3 singles; Szatkowski, single; Kercheval, single; D. Robinson, single, RBI; Vonderheide, 2 singles, double, 5 RBIs; Pikowski, RBI

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At Louisville

Colton Bailey and Andrew Grahn combined efforts to knock off Justin Wille and the visiting Noble Wildcats in a 3-2 victory for the Cardinals.

Wille allowed only four hits and two unearned runs, but Bailey surrendered only one run on six hits in his four innings of work before Grahn came on to throw three hitless shutout innings.

Noble's only run came on a solo home run from Wille in the top of the fourth, cutting the North Clay lead in half; the Cardinals got two in the third on a fielding error with two outs.

The fifth consecutive victory improves North Clay to 13-7 as it hosts Sandoval today.

Noble---------000---100---0--------1-6-2
North Clay---002---000---x--------2-4-1
Wille and Thomas; Bailey, Grahn and Jonah Zink
Noble — Utley, single; Thomas, single; Wille, home run (4th, none on), RBI; Manuel, single; P. Mitchell, single; Fryburger, single
North Clay — Grahn, 2 singles; Hawks, single; Quinn, single

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At Mulberry Grove

Beecher City overcame a 3-0 first-inning deficit to pound homestand Mulberry Grove 18-4 in six innings.

Freshman Austin Miley went the first four innings and got the win, allowing two hits and six walks while fanning eight.

Macaulay Mason singled twice and doubled for three RBIs while both Luke Levitt and Ben Kemme singled, tripled and drove in two apiece.

The Eagles are winners of four in a row and will take their 8-8 record to Centralia to face Christ Our Rock Lutheran Thursday.

Beecher City------007---235--------18-15-0
Mulberry Grove---301---000---------4--2-2
Miley, Levitt (5) and Vincent, Ohnesorge (5); Elam, Mosely (4), Lewis (6) and Heilig
Beecher City — Ohnesorge, single, triple, RBI; Mason, 2 singles, double, 3 RBIs; Levitt, single, triple, 2 RBIs; Vincent, single; Kline, single,RBI; Kemme, single, triple, 2 RBIs; Kirchhofer, double; Bales, single, RBI; Hutchison, double, RBI; Hammer, single, 2 RBIs
Mulberry Grove — Heilig, single; Hart, single, 2 RBIs

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At Odin

South Central's bats stayed red hot at Odin, where the Cougars followed up a 39-run performance in a weekend doubleheader at Carmi by throttling the Eagles 16-3.

Zac Cain and Aaron Robb both hit two-run home runs in the sixth while Tanner Bushue, Will Crain, Heath Sigrist and Shea Burton all had RBI hits.

The Cougars are 16-12 and host Olney today while Odin (7-11) travels to Woodlawn.

South Central---370---015--------16-12-3
Odin--------------030---000---------3--5-1
Robb, Burton (3) and Cain; Murray, Tate (2) and Parrish
South Central — Sigrist, single, triple, RBI; Crain, single, RBI; Burton, double, RBI; Schneider, single, double; Cain, double, triple, home run (6th, 1 on), 4 RBIs; Bushue, single, RBI; Robb, home run (6th, 1 on), 2 RBIs; Armstrong, double
Odin — Hawley, single; Parrish, single; Tate, single; Mathews, single, home run (2nd, 2 on), 3 RBIs

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At Newton

Newton upped its record to 12-14 at home against Oblong, dropping the Panthers 11-1 in six innings.

Justin Swingler was the winning pitcher while Kenin McCoy and Kelby McCoy each drove in two runs.

The Eagles are at Edwards County (Albion) Thursday; Oblong falls to 8-6 with the loss.

Oblong---100---000---------1-5-3
Newton---212---033--------11-9-1
Morrison, Osborne (6) and Littlejohn; Swingler and Ken. McCoy
Oblong — Morrison, single; Morecraft, single, RBI; Littlejohn, single; Osborne, single; Coombes, single
Newton — N. Mammoser, single; French, single; Ken. McCoy, double, 2 RBIs; Kel. McCoy, single, double, 2 RBIs; May, single

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At Greenup

Cumberland got home runs from Ben Sherrick, Kye Butler and Jaton McMechan as it dispatched visiting Dieterich 5-3.

Dieterich falls to 12-7 heading into Thursday's trip to Patoka; the Movin' Maroons used Nick Wendling on the hill and lost despite his five-hitter with three walks and nine strikeouts.

Jeremy Jansen won for Cumberland, which improves to 12-10 heading into Saturday competition with Oakwood before next week's regionals.

Dieterich-------001---011---0--------3-10-1
Cumberland---000---302---x--------5--5-3
WP — Jansen. LP — Wendling.
Dieterich — no individual hitting information provided
Cumberland — Shaffer, double; Sherrick, single, home run, 2 RBIs; Butler, home run, 2 RBIs; McMechan, home run, RBI