SOFTBALL: Pinckneyville 1-2 at Panther Invitational
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville came into the Panther Invitational Softball Tournament on a roll at 6-0, but their level of competition rose significantly in games with a pair of ranked 1A teams this weekend and they emerged from the event with a 1-2 record.
"I was pleased with (our ability to fight back)," said Lady Panthers' head coach Mike Cheek. "We played some really bad softball at times, but the kids never quit, they never gave up."
Columbia stormed through the field at 3-0, winning the championship game over Lebanon 5-2 at Greg Hale Field on Saturday evening.
A drizzling rain delayed Pinckneyville's first round game with Fairfield on Friday to the point that when the Lady Mules broke a 5-5 tie with four runs in the seventh, it was well past 9:00 p.m. A pair or errors and a pair of hits led to the Fairfield rally, and the Lady Panthers couldn't do anything with a two-out walk in the bottom of the inning, falling 9-5.
Trailing 4-0 in the middle of the second inning, PCHS clawed their way back into the game over the next two at-bats. Taylor Howard walked and scored on a single by Alyssa Hirsch in the second, then Dani Schoenbacher (triple), Taylor Cheek, Melia Bathon and Keelyn Stein all had hits during a three-run third for Pinckneyville.
Schoenbacher (3-3, 2B, 3B, R), T. Cheek (2-4, 2B, R, RBI), Stein (2-3, BB, R), Bathon (1-4), Hirsch (1-3, RBI), Shersty Stanton (1-4) and Maddie Jones (1-3, BB, RBI) each had hits for the Lady Panthers against Fairfield. Howard (6-1) was the losing pitcher, taking over in the fourth for Kayla Harris.
The loss earned PCHS a date with Class 1A's fifth-ranked Cobden Appleknockers in the losers bracket, and the Lady Panthers wasted no time in jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on their way to a 4-3 win.
"We played well defensively," M. Cheek said. "We talked about how are we going to come back from a loss, and I thought we showed some fight."
Jordyn Wieland led off with a walk and Cheek and Bathon had singles in the two-run first for PCHS, then Cheek drove in Jones (who had singled) in the second for a 3-0 lead. Schoenbacher drove in the other run for Pinckneyville in the fourth, knocking in Jones with a two-out RBI single.
Harris (1-0) worked all seven frames for PCHS and gave up one run in the third, fourth and fifth innings, but retired the last nine batters of the game to pick up the win. The righty allowed three hits, five walks, two hit batsmen and struck out five.
Cheek (1-3, R, RBI), Schoenbacher (1-2, BB, RBI), Bathon (1-3) and Jones (1-1, BB, SAC, 2 R,) each hit safely against Cobden.
In the losers bracket semifinals, both Altamont and Pinckneyville were playing their second game in four hours and PCHS was on their third contest since Friday evening. The two teams combined for double digit errors in a 17-11 win for Altamont in which the Lady Panthers nearly erased a 10-0 deficit with the help of their bench.
"We put some subs in, the subs came in and performed and the kids on the bench were up cheering for them," said M. Cheek. "If there's such a thing as a good loss, that was a good loss. We got our butts kicked, but our kids really competed."
Bathon (3-5, 2 R, 2 RBI) and Jones (3-4, R, RBI) both had three hits in the game for the Lady Panthers. Wieland (1-5, 2 R), Schoenbacher (1-2, R), Cheek (1-2, 3B, 2 RBI), Stanton (1-5, 2 R, RBI), Howard (1-3, BB), Stein (1-4, 2 RBI), Haley Szczepanski (1-3) and Kaitlyn Sweeney (1-3) all had hits.
Howard (6-2) started for Pinckneyville before yielding to Jordan Koenegstein and Caitie Opp later in the game.
"(Koenegstein) threw well enough that she's going to get some more time on the mound," said M. Cheek. "I was very pleased with the way she pitched, her presence on the mound. We had some health issues with her earlier and she seems to be coming out of that. Then Caitie came in and threw well, she threw strikes, didn't walk anybody, I was pretty pleased."
Pinckneyville (7-2) starts the conference season on Monday when they host Carterville.
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