SOFTBALL: Lady Panthers get lesson from Wesclin
Until the top of the seventh inning, it looked like the Lady Panthers were cruising to a 6-0 start to the season, carrying a 6-1 advantage into Wesclin's final at-bat. That's when the Lady Warriors got five base hits, along with some help from a pair of Pinckneyville errors, and stormed all the way back to steal Monday's game 7-6 at Greg Hale Field. All seven runs Wesclin scored were unearned.
"The last inning was inexcusable," said PCHS head coach Alan Engelhardt. "It's a simple game of field the ball and make plays. We need to understand that we will trade a run for an out there. We were trying to preserve the 6-1 game, trying to get the lead runner over and over instead of just taking outs and making plays."
Nine stranded base runners didn't help the Lady Panthers' cause either. They left somebody on in all but one inning, and couldn't score with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first.
"We left a small village on base," Engelhardt said. "Neither (of Wesclin's pitchers) threw hard, and it comes down to making adjustments. We've got a handful of kids who will adjust and do things right, and they're successful consistently. The majority of us, if you throw it the right speed, we club it, but right now we haven't adjusted real well to off-speed pitching."
Maddie Jones put Pinckneyville ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the second inning with a two-out, two-run double after one-out singles by Kearsten Opp and Andrea Morgan.
Josie Gleason drove in Emma Banach with a single in the third, then came in on a two-run blast by Kearsten Opp one batter later to make it 5-0.
The tide started to turn in the top of the fourth inning. PCHS pitcher Mariah Clark hadn't allowed a hit until a leadoff double by Allyson Isenhower, and an error moments later put the Lady Warriors on the board.
In the bottom of the fourth, Brooklyn Morrow got a good piece of a pitch and lined it to the right side of the infield - right into the glove of Wesclin's Cami Meddows at second base. Meddows doubled up Kylie Kling on the play as some tough luck left PCHS with a zero for the at-bat.
Kearsten Opp added to the lead for Pinckneyville in the fifth, doubling in Gleason, but Wesclin got some momentum back in the sixth with their second double play on defense that wiped out Kling's leadoff double.
"That was the killer," Engelhardt said. "We ran into one. That's a freshman making a mistake, and you talk to her about it, try to get her to understand if a ball's hit in front of you, you can not go until it gets through. Hopefully you learn from that."
Morrow and Banach followed with singles, but were stranded on base.
Clark was tightening up a bit and exited the pitching circle after five innings, and her replacement, Morrow, gave up a single to start the top of the seventh. Two errors followed leaving the door open for Wesclin's big inning.
A sacrifice fly and two base hits later, Morrow was out and Clark was back in. But the freshman couldn't prevent the comeback, allowing two RBI singles before getting the third out, and the Lady Panthers left the tying run at first base in the bottom of the inning.
Clark allowed three hits and two walks in five and two-thirds innings. Morrow gave up five hits in an inning and a third.
The messy seventh spoiled a superb day at the plate by Kearsten Opp - she finished a triple short of the cycle (3-3, R, 3 RBI, 2B, HR, BB). Kling (1-3, SAC), Jones (2-3, 2 RBI, BB), Morrow (2-4), Banach (2-4, R), Clark (1-4), Gleason (1-4, 2 R, RBI) and Andrea Morgan (1-3, R) accounted for Pinckneyville's thirteen hits.
PCHS (5-1) takes on Hamilton County on Wednesday in Pinckneyville.