SOFTBALL: Sloppy fielding costs Lady Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Six unearned runs off of six costly errors spoiled a fourteen-hit day by the Pinckneyville offense, as Carterville knocked off the Lady Panthers 12-9 on Monday in the SIRR Mississippi Division opener for both teams at Greg Hale Field.
Kylee Rock (3-for-4, BB, 2B, 3B, 3 R, 3 RBI) and Kaylin Dixon (2-4, 3 RBI) each drove in three runs for the Lady Lions, who had twelve hits themselves.
"If we're going to compete in our conference at all, we're going to have to make the fundamental plays," said Pinckneyville head softball coach Mike Cheek. "We didn't do a very good job of that today. I'm not faulting our kids' effort, all of our mistakes were just on basics of fielding the ball."
Kayla Harris started in the circle for PCHS, but last only two-thirds of an inning after three walks and an error led to a 2-0 deficit. Jordan Koenegstein came in to relieve with two outs in the bottom of the first, but another error allowed Carterville to move ahead 3-0.
Taylor Cheek's RBI double with one out in the bottom of the inning brought in Jordyn Wieland, and Cheek would later score on an error to trim the Lady Lions lead to 3-2.
The score stayed that way until the bottom of the third when after Taylor Howard led off with a walk and Keelyn Stein popped out to second base, the Lady Panthers strung together six consecutive hits. Maddie Jones, Alyssa Hirsch, Wieland, Dani Schoenbacher, T. Cheek and Melia Bathon all singled, with Wieland and T. Cheek's base hits both bringing in a pair of runs. Bathon's base knock then plated Schoenbacher to give PCHS a 7-3 advantage.
It didn't last for long. In the top of the fourth, Carterville's Haley Barber and Amy Drust reached on errors and Taylor Williams singled, loading the sacks for an RBI for Carly Callahan. Rock then cranked a triple to left to clear the bases and Megan Moon brought her in moments later to put the Lady Lions up 8-7.
Drust singled and scored in the fifth, then Rock, Moon and Dixon each had hits in a two-run sixth for Carterville. Callahan added an RBI single in the seventh after Pinckneyville chipped away with two in the sixth on a single from Hirsch.
"We gave up six earned runs and six unearned runs, and we lost by three - we should have won the game," said M. Cheek.
Callahan (3-4, BB, 2 R, 2 RBI), Moon (2-5, RBI), Williams (1-4, 2 R) and Drust (1-5, 2 R) rounded out the hitting for Carterville.
Schoenbacher led PCHS with a 4-for-5 effort, scoring once and driving in two. Wieland (2-4, BB, 2 R, 2 RBI), T. Cheek (2-5, R, RBI), Jones (2-3, BB, 2 R), Hirsch (2-3, BB, R, 2 RBI), Bathon (1-3, 2 BB, RBI) and Stein (1-4, R) had hits for PCHS.
The Lady Panthers (7-3) face a tough conference road battle on Tuesday afternoon when they travel to Anna to meet the Lady Wildcats.
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