PINCKNEYVILLE BASEBALL: Murphysboro Shuts Down Panthers

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Dylan Craig whiffed a dozen batters in six innings of work Thursday afternoon, leading Murphysboro (4-1) to a 6-2 victory over Pinckneyville in boys prep baseball action.

The Panthers, 1-2, were scheduled to play an early afternoon game Friday at Carbondale and then venture to Harrisburg for a pair of games Saturday.

"Today was another growing experience for us. We had

a solid outing on the mound from Jeff Thornton and Bryant Shute, only giving up five hits for the game, but we didn't take care of business on defense behind them," Panthers coach Alan Engelhardt said.

"Dylan Craig of Murphysboro was outstanding against us, and we let our struggles at the plate affect how we played in the field. "

Murphysboro led 6-0 to start the seventh and rallied when Matt Gill laced a one-out single. Craig was relieved by Blake DeRocher and struck out Michael Rakers.

Thornton reached on an error to score McConnell and Gill, breaking the shutout.

DeRocher recovered to fan Landon Chandler and end the contest.

PCHS had just three hits in the game with Shute adding the other safety.

"If we hadn't given away three runs, we would have been

batting in the last inning with the tying run on first base," Engelhardt said.

"I think that is hard for young guys to see some times. It is very difficult to win the game in one inning, but it is very easy to lose the game in an inning. I hope as we get more innings under our belts, we will learn how to play with a sense of urgency for an entire game."

Murphysboro 6, PCHS 2

PCHS 000 000 2-2 3 6

Murphy 100 311 x-6 5 1

Thornton, Shute (5) and Gill. Craig, DeRocher (7) and Deaton . WP-Craig. LP-Thornton, 0-1. TOP HITTERS-PCHS: McConnell 1-3 (2B), Gill 1-3, Shute 1-1. Murphysboro: Nadolski 1-3 (2 RBI).