SOFTBALL: Schoenbacher leads Lady Panthers over Shelbyville, Teutopolis
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Lady Panthers scored 31 runs to pick up a pair of hard-fought victories at this past weekend's Southern Illinois Softball Showcase, and centerfielder Dani Schoenbacher put together one of the best one-day performances by a single player in Pinckneyville history as Pinckneyville topped Shelbyville 16-15 before later edging Teutopolis 15-13.
Schoenbacher was a perfect 8-for-8 at the plate in the two wins for the Lady Panthers, doubling five times and driving in nine runs while scoring three times and drawing three walks, one of which brought the winning run across against Shelbyville in the bottom of the eighth inning.
As if her offense wasn't enough, Schoenbacher also saved three runs in the first inning against Teutopolis by robbing a home run in the outfield, hanging on for the catch as she tumbled over the netting in left-center.
"Dani had a phenomenal day," said Pinckneyville head softball coach Mike Cheek. "This is one of the greatest performances by a single player for a day that I've ever watched. It was unbelievable. She's always done a great job in centerfield, she's just been hitting lights-out all season long."
Jordyn Wieland also shined offensively for the Lady Panthers on Saturday, going 4-for-7 with seven RBIs and eight runs scored.
PCHS was originally set to take on Pleasant Plains Friday afternoon at the Perry County Fairgrounds, then Shelbyville and Williamsville on Saturday. Rain in Pinckneyville on Friday left one of the two fields unplayable, so the schedule was rearranged and the Lady Panthers met Shelbyville and Teutopolis on Saturday while some of the other games were moved to Carterville.
The defending state runner-up Shelbyville Lady Rams came into the weekend as the No. 10 team in the latest 2A poll put out by the Illinois Coaches Association, and elected to go with Madison Boone in the circle against Pinckneyville instead of their ace, University of Arkansas recruit Grace Moll.
The two teams combined for 22 hits and 31 runs and it took the international tiebreaker to decide the game, which also included 18 walks from the two sides.
Schoenbacher drove in a run with a double and Melia Bathon homered in the bottom of the first inning to give PCHS the early lead, then the Lady Panthers piled on six more in the second behind RBIs from Wieland, Schoenbacher, Taylor Cheek and Shersty Stanton.
The Lady Rams rallied with six in the top of the third, then Bathon and Stanton added to their RBI totals in a four-run bottom half for Pinckneyville for a 13-6 lead.
Shelbyvile scored four times in both the fifth and seventh innings and PCHS got one in the sixth, but Moll took the rubber for the Lady Rams in the bottom of the seventh in a tie game in hopes of shutting the door.
Moll struck out the side in the seventh, but after Shelbyville scraped a run across in the top of the eighth without a hit, Kaitlyn Sweeney and Taylor Howard singled and Wieland was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Schoenbacher with the game knotted at 15-15. Schoenbacher showed patience and drew a full-count walk to bring in Sweeney for the walk-off win in a game that took over two-and-a-half hours to complete.
"The biggest thing I thought we did was when they brought in the best pitcher we're going to face, we found a way to win," M. Cheek said. "We didn't hit the ball (off of her), but we did the little things we had to do to get a win."
Schoenbacher (4-4, 2 2B, 2 BB, 3 R, 4 RBI), Bathon (2-5, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI), T. Cheek (2-3, 2 BB, 2R, RBI), Stanton (2-5, 2B, 2 RBI), Wieland (1-2, 3 BB, 4 R, 2 RBI), Sweeney (1-1, R) and Howard (1-2, 2 BB, R, RBI) accounted for Pinckneyville's twelve hits. Jordan Koenegstein picked up the pitching win.
Things got off to a sour start later Saturday afternoon against Teutopolis when the visitors put up seven first inning runs to seemingly take command of the ball game.
The Lady Panthers chipped away with a run off an error in the first, three more in the second on RBIs from Sweeney and Wieland, then four runs in the third thanks to back-to-back-to-back RBI hits from Alyssa Hirsch, Wieland and Schoenbacher put PCHS on top 8-7.
T-Town had regained the lead 10-8 after the top of the fifth, but Schoenbacher again delivered at the plate with a two-out, two-run double in the bottom half. Pinckneyville piled on five more runs in the bottom of the sixth including the go-ahead run on a single by Kayla Emling, then withstood a three-run seventh by the Lady Wooden Shoes before ultimately claiming a two-run victory.
Howard came in to pitch in the second to pick up the victory in the circle, going the rest of the way for PCHS.
"We spotted them a seven run lead, and (Howard) came in and just kept throwing strikes, keeping them off-balance, and did a nice job of pitching," M. Cheek said. "She's not going to throw it by anybody, she did a nice job of pitching, hitting her spots, putting the ball where it needed to be put so they would hit balls we could field."
Schoenbacher (4-4, 3 2B, 5 RBI), Wieland (3-5, 2 2B, 4 R, 5 RBI), Howard (2-3, BB, R, RBI), T. Cheek (1-4, 2B, R), Stanton (1-3, HBP, R), Emling (1-4, SAC, 2 R, 2 RBI), Hirsch (1-2, R, RBI), Sweeney (1-2, R, RBI) and Keelyn Stein (2-4, R) had hits against Teutopolis.
"We're going to be happy about the fact that we didn't quit and battled back twice, and really competed," said M. Cheek. "We competed very well today."
Pinckneyville (10-7, 1-5) returns to conference play on Monday when they host Anna-Jonesboro.
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