Thursday's Prep Baseball: Panthers defeat Steeleville
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A pair of big innings sparked Pinckneyville Community High School to its second consecutive baseball win Thursday afternoon.
The Panthers-plating six runs in the third inning and then closing out the contest with a five-run fifth-ripped visiting Steeleville 12-2
at Rigdon Field.
Now 3-5, PCHS hosted Carbondale at noon Friday in a rescheduled contest lost to rain last Friday.
"I really have to give our guys credit for taking some of the problems we had in our first few games and trying to make adjustments to them," Panthers coach Alan Engelhardt said.
"Our pregames have been good the last couple of days and have led to much better approaches in all aspects of the game. Noah Hepp did a nice job of throwing the baseball today, keeping the ball down, and getting several ground-ball outs, and Taylor Beninati did a nice job of coming in to get the last two outs of the fifth to keep Steeleville out of striking distance.:
Pinckneyville had 15 hits in the game with Michael Rakers, Matthew Nichols and Brandon Long all connecting three times.
Landon Chandler added two hits.
Dudek and Long also knocked in three runs each with Christian Shopinski bashing a two-run homer.
Adam Barczewski's triple accounted for two more tallies.
"It was good to see our bats keep going at the plate, getting production up and down the lineup. I like our new-found aggression at the plate, on the bases, and on the mound," Engehardt saud. "If we can keep playing aggressively and stay focused, we will continue to have good outings and improve as the season moves forward."
Noah Hepp was the winning hurler, working one out in the fifth inning. He struck out two and scattered six hits. Taylor Beninati retired the final two batters.
PCHS 12, Steeleville 2
STLV 110 00-2 6 3
PCHS 015 06-12 15 2
Hepp, Beninati (5) and Barczewski. WP-Hepp. TOP HITTERS-PCHS: Dudek 1-4 (2B, 3 RBI), Chandler 2-4, Rakers 3-4 (2B, RBI), Shopinski 1-2 (HR, 2 RBI), Nichols 3-4 (2B, RBI), Shute 1-2, Barczewski 1-3 (3B, 2 RBI), Long 3-3 (3 RBI).