Murphysboro ends Steeleville Sr. Legion's season
<span>STEELEVILLE -- Murphysboro scored four runs off of Steeleville reliever Wyatt Ruehling in the top of the eighth and Post 127 held off a rally by the home team in the bottom of the inning to beat Post 480, 8-5, on Tuesday in the semifinals of the American Senior Legion 25th District tournament.</span>
<span>Steeleville (16-9) seemed to have things in hand with a 4-1 lead entering the fifth and one of its best pitchers, Ryan Stromeyer, on the mound. But Murphysboro batted around in its turn in the fifth in scoring three runs to tie the game.</span>
<span>The teams remained deadlocked at 4 until the eighth, when Landen Harris drew a leadoff walk from Ruehling and Matt Burke followed with a ground-rule double. Ruehling then hit Trevor Daniels with a pitch to load the bases with nobody out.</span>
<span>"I was debating to put Wyatt in or not after the seventh," said Steeleville coach Darryl Winkelman. "(Stromeyer) told me he was tired going into the seventh, but said he wanted to pitch, so I said 'Alright, we'll go batter-by-batter.'</span>
<span>"He had a pretty easy seventh inning, but when he said he was tired, I thought 'Man, I've got a closer that's closed three games for us this year' and it's a double-edged sword."</span>
<span>RBI singles from Michael Crane and Noah Baird followed and after Ruehling got Justin Pulcher to ground into a forceout at home, a wild pitch scored Murphysboro's third run of the inning. Post 127 added its fourth run on a two-out infield single by Dylan Brasel.</span>
<span>Steeleville had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the seventh when Brenton Atchison walked and Casey Wilson drew a one-out intentional walk, but Kramer Eggemeyer flied out to center field and Luke Hartman grounded into a 1-3 putout.</span>
<span>"We had runners on first and second with one out and couldn't get them across," Winkelman said. "We had some kids hit the ball hard. The last inning, that was the kids not giving up."</span>
<span>Trailing 8-4 to start the bottom of the eighth, Stromeyer hit a leadoff double and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Ruehling.</span>
<span>Brett Bunselmeyer hit a one-out single to put two runners on, but Atchison hit into a 4-3 double play to end the game.</span>
<span>"The last play was bang-bang," Winkelman said. "We would have liked to have another at-bat with Casey Wilson coming up after Hunter (Howie) and Casey's been hitting the ball crazy for the last week or so."</span>
<span>"But, not meant to be."</span>
<span>Murphysboro took the early lead with a run in the second inning, but Steeleville plated a pair of runs in the third and fourth to take its three-run advantage.</span>
<span>Bunselmeyer led Post 480 at the plate with a 3-for-4 performance with an RBI, while Wilson (2-3, 2B, 2BI) and Cody Eggemeyer (2-4, 2B) also had multiple hits for Steeleville.</span>
<span>Originally scheduled for nine innings, the game was shortened to seven due to the hot conditions. With the win, Murphysboro - which fell in the championship game to Herrin, 6-4 - earned a spot in the 5th Division tournament, which begins Monday in Carmi.</span>
<span>The final two teams in the district tournament automatically receive a spot in the division tournament.</span>
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