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BASEBALL: Panthers' season ends in familiar fashion

Posted May 14, 2012 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Same two schools, same field, same situation, same score, same end result.

For the second straight season, Pinckneyville was sent home early from the IHSA Class 2A Baseball Regional tournament by Sparta, falling to the Bulldogs 7-5 at Rigdon Field on Monday.

The top seed in their own Regional last spring, the Panthers also fell to Sparta in their first game of the that postseason - 7-5.

Seth Shevlin led the Sparta offense this time around going 3-for-3 at the plate with two doubles and a triple, scoring twice and driving in two runs. Meanwhile, the Panthers missed several scoring opportunities and stranded baserunners in each inning until the seventh.

"Today's game was a good summation of our season," said PCHS head baseball coach Alan Engelhardt. "We had some missed opportunities and really didn't play to our potential for five innings, then in the sixth we made some plays and gave ourselves a chance to win the game only to have it slip away again."

"It wasn't the seventh inning that doomed us; we really hurt ourselves by wasting at-bats and not putting anything together in the second through fifth innings."

Engelhardt sent his ace Evan Chapman to the mound, and in the early-going the right-hander appeared to have his stuff, striking out the first three Sparta hitters.

Hunter Queen reached on an error in the bottom of the first, then scored on a single by Bryant Shute for a 1-0 lead.

Adam Steely and Shevlin had back-to-back doubles to lead off the second to tie the game, but then Chapman briefly restored order with a pair of strikeouts and a grounder to second.

Sparta picked up two more in the fourth when Steely walked and Shevlin tripled, setting up Aaron Rushing for a two-out RBI single to make it 3-1.

Shawn Rogers added to the lead with two more two-out RBI in the top of the sixth and the Bulldogs were seemingly in command up by four.

The Panthers stranded runners in scoring position in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings before finally breaking through in the sixth. Joey Burris and Justin Bumann each singled and Marian Brammeier walked to load the bases for Queen, who doubled in two. Dylan Hardin's two-run single then momentarily tied the game at 5-5.

On in relief of Chapman, Shute allowed three straight hits in the top of the seventh with Justin Meyerhoff's single bringing in Steely for a 6-5 lead. Aaron Rushing added an insurance run with an RBI single before the side was retired.

C.J. Opp walked to lead off the final at-bat for PCHS, but Burris grounded into a double play and Chapman struck out to end the game, and the season for the Panthers.

Shute closed out a stellar three-sport athletic career at Pinckneyville Community High School going 2-for-3 with a walk, a triple and an RBI. Queen (2-4, 2 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI) and Chapman (2-3, 2B) also had two hits.

"I thought Bryant Shute did a great job of adjusting and hitting the ball the other way today and Hunter Queen did a good job late, hitting a couple of doubles as well," Engelhardt said.

Hardin (1-4, 2 RBI), Burris (1-4, R) and Bumann (1-3, R) had the remainder of the Panthers' nine hits.

The Panthers (16-16) no doubt had higher hopes for their 2012 season after winning the SIRR Mississippi Division in 2011 and returning the bulk of their roster, but instead endured a season of highs and lows that ended in a strangely similar fashion to the previous one, at least by the numbers.

"It wasn't the way we envisioned the day going, and wasn't really how we envisioned the season either," said Engelhardt. "I hope the kids learned some lessons on playing on an even keel and trying to play hard all the time that they can apply to not only baseball, but their lives as well."

"Hopefully our kids have a good summer and can propel ourselves into next season with momentum."

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