BASEBALL: Panthers score 14 runs in 13th straight win
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Hunter Queen fired five innings of one-hit baseball and the Panthers pounded out 12 hits in a 14-1 five-inning rout at Waltonville on Thursday, Pinckneyville's thirteenth victory in a row.
"It was good to see us get back to taking good relaxed cuts as today's game went along," said Panthers' head baseball coach Alan Engelhardt. "Hunter Queen threw the ball pretty well for us today, looking the most relaxed and fluid on the mound as he has all year, keeping the ball down, and hitting spots."
Ten different Panthers recorded hits, and it didn't take long for the scoring to get underway. Adam Barczewski smacked a 3-1 pitch for a leadoff home run in the top of the first for a 1-0 lead that lasted until the third.
"I thought we were still pressing and a little off-balance at the plate in the first couple of innings," Engelhardt said, "but in the third, we started having much better at-bats, hitting the ball to all fields and making some good adjustments."
Taylor Beninati singled to start the top of the third, then he and Barczewski scored on an RBI single by Bryant Shute. The single extended Shute's current hitting streak to nine games.
Matthew Nichols brought home Shute with his one-out single, then scored on a base hit by the next batter, Joey Burris. Burris came in on an error by the shortstop, and after three the Panthers led 7-0.
Pinckneyville added seven more runs in the top of the fourth, three coming on a home run by second baseman Brandon Long.
Meanwhile, Queen cruised through the majority of the game allowing only an unearned run in the fourth inning, the same inning he surrendered the Spartans' only hit. He struck out nine and walked just one.
Shute (2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI) and Nichols (2-3, 2 R, 3 RBI) were the only Panthers with multiple hits, as almost the entire lineup produced at the plate.
Barczewski (1-1, 2 BB, HR, 3 R, RBI), Long (1-3, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI), Burris (1-2, R, RBI), Beninati (1-3, 2 R, RBI), Caleb Howard (1-1, RBI), C.J. Opp (1-2), Evan Chapman (1-2) and Dylan Hardin (1-3, R, RBI) also had hits.
The Panthers (19-3) host Harrisburg for a Friday doubleheader starting at 4:00 p.m., then travel to Triad for games against Triad and Holt-Wentsville on Saturday.
The thirteen game winning streak marks the second streak of such length for Coach Engelhardt this school year - his Lady Panthers' varsity basketball squad also won thirteen straight during the winter.