SOFTBALL: Pinckneyville holds on to down Du Quoin
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Perry County rivalry between DuQuoin and Pinckneyville continues in softball with Pinckneyville winning the first game. Pinckneyville beat DuQuoin 11-7 in seven innings at Lion's Field on Friday.
Pinckneyville took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but DuQuoin came back in the bottom of the inning to score and tie the game at 1-1. Pinckneyville scored two more in the third inning, one in the fourth, two in the fifth, and four in the sixth inning. DuQuoin scored two in the fourth inning, one in the fifth and three in the seventh. DuQuoin had two runners on base when the third out was made by Pinckneyville to end the game.
DuQuoin's record is now 11-2 and Pinckneyville is 13-2. DuQuoin is 0-2 in conference play. DuQuoin committed three costly errors on defense, while Pinckneyville had only one.
Pinckneyville's pitcher, Sarah Malanowski went seven innings allowing 7 runs (1 unearned), on 12 hits, had 3 strikeouts and no walks. She was the winning pitcher. Cassidy Rice of DuQuoin gets the loss. She pitched seven innings, allowed 11 runs (5 unearned), on 15 hits, walked 4, and had 6 strikeouts.
Hitting for Pinckneyville: Mo Ramsey was 2-5, Maddy Keith was 3-5, Taylor Cheek was 3-5 including a Home Run and an RBI, Emily Chapman was 2-4 with an RBI, Shirsty Stanton was 2-3 including a Home Run and three RBI, and Taylor Kuhnert was 3-4 with 2 RBI. Also seeing action were Taylor Cicardi, Jordyn Wieland, and Dani Jenkel.
Coach Mike Cheek commented: "I thought we played six extremely good innings. I thought in the seventh inning we let down a little, but that could be that DuQuoin picked up their effort. We pitched and played good defense today."
DuQuoin had 12 hits total. Kelsey Toler was 2-4 including a double, Jessica Hirsch was 1-4, Kelsey Robinson was 2-4 including a triple, Hadley Marek was 1-4 with 2 RBI, Cassidy Rice was 1-3 a double, Magen Edwards was 2-4 including a Home Run with 3 RBI, Katrina Whitley was 1-4, and Jessy Wallace was 2-3. Ashley Ward and Curry Emling also played in the game.
Coach Jason James commented that "Pinckneyville is a good team. I thought their pitcher did a good job of keeping us off balance. I like the way we battled back; we didn't give up. We had too many errors in the field. We have to bring it back together. We are not going to hang it up because we have two losses. We have to rebound for Mulberry Grove tomorrow (Saturday)."
DuQuoin travels to Mulberry Grove for two games on Saturday.