BASEBALL: Panthers win pitchers' duel over Indians
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville and DuQuoin battled for nine innings before Pinckneyville scored two runs in the ninth to take the victory in baseball on Friday. Adam Barczewski hit a home run with a runner on base to score two runs in the top of the ninth inning. The final score was 4-2.
Pinckneyville got on the scoreboard first scoring two in the second inning. Brandon Long singled followed by a Marian Brammeier single. Joey Burris got on a fielder's choice scoring Long. Brammeier moved to third. Taylor Beninati hit a sacrifice fly to center scoring Brammeier. DuQuoin scored one run in the fourth inning and one run in the seventh to tie the score. Pinckneyville won the game in the ninth inning when Adam Barczewski homered with Taylor Beninati on base. The final score was 4-2 in Pinckneyville's favor.
DuQuoin had only two hits. Seth Baxter was 1-5 and Connor Wheeler 1-3. DuQuoin's runs were unearned as Pinckneyville committed 5 errors. Other players seeing action were: Trent Bigham, J.C. Davis, Brandon George, Drew Bennett, Nate Boss, Dylan Pyron, Travis Chapman, Jake Stanhouse, and Garrett Dorsey.
Pinckneyville had Adam Barczewski 1-3 (Home Run) with 2 RBI, Brandon Long 1-5, Marian Brammeier 1-4, and Matthew Nichols 2-5. Joey Burris and Taylor Beninati each had an RBI. DuQuoin also committed 5 errors in the contest. Bryant Shute, C.J. Opp, Noah Hepp, Hunter Queen, and Dylan Hardin also had playing time for the Panthers.
Evan Chapman was the starting pitcher for Pinckneyville. He pitched seven innings allowing two hits on two runs, had 4 walks and 5 strikeouts. Taylor Beninati relieved going two innings allowing no hits, no runs, had two walks and 1 strikeout. Beninati was the winning pitcher (1-0). For DuQuoin, Brandon George started and went seven innings. He allowed 3 hits, two runs (one earned), had 4 walks and 4 strikeouts. Trent Bigham relieved going two innings allowing two hits, two runs (both earned), had one walk and one strikeout. Bigham gets the loss for the Indians.
Pinckneyville is 7-3 overall and 1-1 in the Conference. DuQuoin is 2-8 overall and 0-2 in the Conference.
Coach Alan Engelhardt thought "both starting pitchers really threw the ball well today. I wish we could have gotten Evan the win after he threw so well for us. In a game like this, mistakes are really magnified. Both DuQuoin runs were scored as results of our errors, and we gave up a couple that we could have scored because of poor base running. I thought we played pretty well defensively with the exception of the couple of miscues. Matthew Nichols throwing someone out at the plate from left and Marian Brammeier throwing a runner out at second base from deep centerfield were two huge plays for us. I was really pleased to see us keep our heads up even though we didn't finish the seventh inning the way we would have liked to. That was a big step forward from Monday."
Pinckneyville was to play Goreville at 10:00 on Saturday morning. DuQuoin was scheduled to play two games at Eldorado on Saturday morning, but they were canceled due to rain. DuQuoin travels to Nashville on Monday for a conference game.