BASEBALL: Panthers lose at Carterville, Shute's hit streak stopped
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Just five days after the Panthers defeated the Lions at Rigdon Field for their twelfth victory in a row, Carterville played host for Monday's rematch and handed Pinckneyville their fifth straight loss, an 8-1 final.
The Panthers out-hit the Lions 6-4, but walked seven batters and hit four others while committing three errors on defense.
"We aren't going to win many games with that stat line," said PCHS head baseball coach Alan Engelhardt.
"Every team goes through a rough patch at some part of the season, you just have to hope that patch is not as close to the end of the year as ours has been. We have some people pressing instead of playing relaxed and enjoying the game."
The Panthers managed just one hit in their first three innings at the plate, but the game was still scoreless until the bottom of the third.
Patrick Brown and Daniel Allen each walked, then Logan Mann and Alex Liebenrood were both hit with pitches to start the scoring. An error, a walk, and another hit-by-pitch followed, and suddenly the Lions led 4-0.
Jordan Allensworth drove in Allen in the fourth to make it 5-0, then in the sixth Carterville got three more runs across on three hits and three free passes.
The Panthers finally got on the scoreboard in the seventh when Taylor Beninati doubled with two outs and was driven in by Adam Barczewski's single.
Bryant Shute (0-for-3) went without a base hit, ending a string of thirteen consecutive games with at least one.
Hunter Queen took the loss without allowing a single hit - but did walk four Lions and hit three.
C.J. Opp was the only Panther with multiple hits, both singles in a 2-for-3 showing. Barczewski (1-3, RBI), Beninati (1-3, 2B, R), Joey Burris (1-3) and Justin Bumann (1-3) had the other Pinckneyville hits.
Allen (1-3, 3 R), Mann (1-3, 2R), Allensworth (1-3, R, RBI) and Sammy Stearns (1-3, RBI) had Carterville's hits.
Pinckneyville (19-8) faces another tough test on Tuesday afternoon when they face Teutopolis at Kaskaskia College in Centralia, Ill.