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BASEBALL: Familiar start for Panthers in Mt. Vernon

Posted March 15, 2012 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[For the third consecutive year, Pinckneyville opened their high school varsity baseball season with a lopsided defeat at Mt. Vernon on Wednesday, falling 11-1 in four and a half innings.

PCHS fell 9-1 at Brennan Klein Field in game one of the 2010 baseball season and again 11-6 on opening day of 2011.

Things looked bright for the Panthers after Joey Burris doubled in Dylan Hardin in the top of the first, but it was all downhill from there, both on defense and at the plate.

Starter C.J. Opp faced four batters in a scoreless first, but in the second inning he got into a jam soon after walking the leadoff batter Zane Xanders. An error and a bunt single - when nobody covered first base - opened the door for a big inning for Mt. Vernon. The Rams responded with seven runs, three coming on a triple and one-base error that got to the wall by Zack Jones.

"(Mt. Vernon is) a good fastball hitting team," said Panthers' head baseball coach Alan Engelhardt, "and that's why we chose to throw C.J. today, hoping that we'd be able to beat them off-speed a little bit, but we threw too many fastballs."

"It all starts when you make an error, then you follow it with a mental error, and then we don't into cut-off position twice. We had two physical errors and three mental errors in that inning, and so now he's throwing more pitchers. They just saw too many of his fastballs."

Hardin began the game catching, but took over on the hill in the third and fared only slightly better. The righty allowed four runs to come across in his two innings of work, cutting the game short after Pinckneyville went down in order in the top of the fifth.

"The thing that was disappointing and a little frustrating was that we looked like both in the field and at bat we were tentative," Engelhardt said. "We were playing with a little fear of failure. Instead of going up and looking to make a play at the plate, we were going up there looking to spoil something off. We were looking to put it in play so you don't strike out."

"A lot of that's because it's the first game, the thing is you have to learn from it and not do it again. If you come out and do it again next game, you've got to really correct a problem. If they take this to heart and we work on it tomorrow in practice and get better, then it's worth it."

The Panthers ended up with just two hits - Burris' double and a second inning single by Luke Miller. Opp allowed six earned runs on five hits and two walks in his two innings on the hill, Hardin three earned on four hits in his two innings.

While it wasn't a bright spot on Wednesday, Engelhardt does expect a deep pitching staff to be one of the Panthers' strengths in 2012.

"We've got to get Evan (Chapman) back healthy, he's a little dinged here to start the year," Engelhardt said. "We'll get a timetable (Thursday) on when he can start throwing again. When you throw him into the rotation, and the way some of the kids have been throwing the ball in practice, I think pitching will be our strength."

One hole left behind from last year's squad is the catching position, where for the last three seasons All-South backstop Adam Barczewski handled the pitching staff for the vast majority of varsity games. Early this season, it appears as though several players are contending for the job behind the plate.

"We've talked about how March is spring training (for us)," Engelhardt said. "(Catching) is not a strength, but I don't think it's going to be a weakness in the long run either. I think Dylan (Hardin) did a good job of blocking balls in the dirt, Evan (Chapman) obviously has a strong arm back there, he's working on his blocking. Noah (Hepp) has caught before, Colton (Nelson) has caught his entire life, Justyn Rushing did a tremendous job in practice the other day, so we've got some options. The nice thing is all of these kids are fairly athletic. We'll get better."

Pinckneyville (0-1) will host Okawville on Friday afternoon in their home opener and the first game for the varsity Panthers on the new grass infield at Rigdon Field.

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