Church league action

Brad Harrison of St. Louis/Covenant slides in safely to second base as Bunker Hill shortstop Jake Gustafson takes the throw in Tuesday’s Princeton Fastpitch Church League play at Westside Park. Umpire Keith Dickinson will make the call of “Play Ball” again on Friday. (BCR photo/Mike Vaughn)

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PRINCETON — The first team has been eliminated from the Princeton Fastpitch Church League Tournament.

Princeton Bible suffered its second loss in two nights when it ran into Ron Elgin and the First Baptist/First Presbyterian co-op Tuesday night. Elgin, a veteran fastpitcher from Tampico, shut the Bible out on three hits through six innings, before settling for a 7-4 victory.

Bunker Hill shook off two forfeit losses Saturday to close the regular season by taking a 14-8 win in Tuesday’s opener behind winning pitcher Adam Gutshall, who went the distance.

Elgin helped his own cause with a two-run single in the top of the first inning. Jon Fisher led off by circling the bases on an error in the Bible outfield as Baptist/Presbyterian took a quick 3-0 lead.

RBI hits by Buzz Fisher in the third inning and Matt Cochran in the fifth inning stretched the Baptist/Presbyterian lead to 5-0.

A home run by Craig “Hollywood” Atkinson and a RBI single by Jaime Elgin made it 7-0 in the sixth.

Bible went down swinging. Pastor Ken Wilson singled to lead off the seventh, his second hit of the night. Elgin pitched around Bible slugger Gary Driscoll again with another free pass but also walked catcher Curtis Odell to load the bases.

Bible pitcher Rob Jensen blasted a deep shot to the left-center fence, legging out a triple to drive in three runs. Kevin Hieronymus’ hit to center made it 7-4.

Elgin retired the next two batters to notch the win.

• Church bulletin: The tournament takes two nights off, resuming Friday at Westside Park with Bunker Hill and Bureau Township squaring off at 6 p.m. Bunker captain Terry Gutshall will be back in action to share pitching duties with his son, Adam. Top seed United Methodist enters the frey at 7:30 p.m. against St. Matthew’s, which opened Monday with a 11-1 win over Bible ... After pitching Bureau Township to a 9-7 win Monday over Baptist/Presbyterian, Chris “Coach” Walker will take the night off Friday to participate in the Relay for Life in Spring Valley in honor of his wife. Bureau captain Jeremy House, who broke his left arm earlier in the summer, will take the rubber.

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