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SOFTBALL: PCHS softball sprints to 6-0 start

Posted March 31, 2012 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Lady Panthers scored in each of the four innings in which they stepped to the plate and Taylor Howard (5-0) tossed a one-hit five-inning shutout in Pinckneyville's 12-0 victory over Steeleville on Thursday at Greg Hale Field.

Every PCHS player that started the game scored a run in the sixth straight win for the Lady Panthers to start the year.

"I'm really pleased with what we're doing," said second-year Pinckneyville head softball coach Mike Cheek. "We don't have one big hitter, we seem to have different people stepping up different days. We're young, we make mistakes, but I like the fact that we're competing every ball game. That's what we talked about today is 'go compete,' and I thought we competed very well."

Jordyn Wieland led off the bottom of the first with a single and scored on Taylor Cheek's one-out base hit. Melia Bathon later drove in Shersty Stanton for a 2-0 PCHS lead.

Maddie Jones and Alyssa Hirsch had back-to-back singles in the second, and both came in on Dani Schoenbacher's two-run double. Schoenbacher scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-0.

The Lady Panthers added two more in the third and five in the fourth to complete the short-game dismissal of the Lady Warriors.

Jones had three hits (all singles) and scored three runs with an RBI. Schoenbacher (2-3, 2B, R, 2 RBI), T. Cheek (2-3, R, RBI), Hirsch (2-2, R, RBI), Wieland (1-3, HBP, R), Bathon (1-2, HBP, R, RBI), Howard (1-3, R, RBI), Keelyn Stein (1-3, 2 R, RBI) and Kaitlyn Sweeney (1-1, 2B, RBI) also had hits for Pinckneyville.

While the Lady Panthers may have dodged a couple of extremely tough matchups with games against Herrin and Alton Marquette getting rained out, the 6-0 start is nothing short of impressive for a team that has just two seniors and two juniors on their entire roster.

"It's fun, there are no egos here," said M. Cheek. "They all try to get along, if somebody makes a mistake there's somebody there picking them up."

"What I love seeing in practice, I'll see one of my seniors taking a freshman and saying 'this is what you need to be doing here,' and the freshmen and the sophomores are listening and learning."

Weather permitting, Pinckneyville will get a test this weekend at the Panther Invitational. Teams from Cobden, Lebanon, Fairfield, Columbia, West Frankfort, Carterville, Vienna, Johnston City and Altamont will all take part in the ten-team, double elimination tournament starting at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The Lady Panthers will meet Fairfield at 6:00 p.m. in round one.

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