BASEBALL: Tough start for baseball Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Heavy rain in Pinckneyville and the lack of a tarp at Rigdon Field led to Wednesday's season opener between the Panthers and Rams to be moved to Lincoln Park in Mt. Vernon, where PCHS fell 11-6 after falling behind 9-0 in the first inning.
Pinckneyville's Matthew Nichols walked and stole second in the top of the first, but was left stranded after Adam Barczewski's groundout.
The Rams did the bulk of their damage in the bottom of the inning off of Panthers' starter Bryant Shute, who got the leadoff man to pop out to center before walking the next hitter. A bloop single set up the game's first RBI for Mt. Vernon, but the big blows were yet to come on 2-run and 3-run homers that eventually chased Shute after the junior retired only two batters.
Noah Hepp inherited the 9-0 deficit, but kept the Panthers in the game with 4 1/3 innings of solid work, allowing 0 runs on 5 hits while striking out 7 and walking a pair before yielding to Evan Chapman in the bottom of the sixth.
In the top of the sixth, Pinckneyville finally got on the scoreboard. Barczewski singled with one out, then C.J. Opp reached on a two-out infield single to set up Hepp's three-run homer over the left field wall for the Panthers' first runs of the season.
Down 11-3 heading into the seventh, the Panthers continued to rally as Brandon Long led off with a walk and was doubled to third by Nichols. Shute followed with a single to shallow left to load them up for Barczewski, but the Mt. Vernon second baseman made a diving grab of the Pinckneyville catcher's near-hit for the inning's first out.
Joey Burris picked up a pinch-hit RBI on a 4-3 fielder's choice, then Opp kept hope alive with a two-out, 2-RBI single, but after Hepp drew a walk, Justin Bumann was struck out to end the threat.
Hepp was 2-for-3 at the plate with 3 RBI, Opp also had two hits (2-for-4) and a pair of runs driven in. Shute and Nichols also collected hits for PCHS.
The Panthers (0-1) will look to rebound on Friday at Okawville (4:30 p.m.) before their first home baseball games on Wednesday, March 23 against Seneca (3:00 p.m.) and Hamilton County (7:00 p.m.).
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