BASEBALL: Mascoutah makes short work of Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville came into Thursday's game at Mascoutah winners of eight of their last eleven games and coming off a dominating performance the day before against West Frankfort. Add in the fact that Evan Chapman took the mound against the Indians with a 2-0 lead, and things were looking promising for the Panthers to continue building steam on their way into next week's Regional at Du Quoin.
Mascoutah exploded for six runs in the bottom of the first inning and another half-dozen in the second on their way to completely owning the Panthers 15-3. Pinckneyville committed four errors and stranded eight runners on base in the loss.
"We didn't throw or field the ball very well today, and that is a bad combination for success," said PCHS baseball head coach Alan Engelhardt. "Again, once we got behind, we hung our heads and quit. I was hoping we were past that, but we aren't, and that is a bad sign heading into the post-season."
Hunter Queen and Dylan Hardin led off the game with back-to-back doubles, then Bryant Shute singled and scored on a double by Trent Hicks to make it 2-0 Panthers.
Things came unraveled for PCHS from that point on. Chapman walked the first two batters he faced, then back-to-back errors allowed both those runners to score. In all, twelve batters came to the plate in the first inning, then eleven in the second as the Indians stormed to a 12-2 lead.
The Panthers would scrap out a run in the fifth on an RBI by Noah Hepp.
Hardin (2-3, 2 2B, R, RBI), Queen (1-2, BB, R), Shute (1-2, HBP, R), Hicks (1-3, 2B, RBI), Hepp (1-2, BB, RBI) and Justin Bumann (1-3) accounted for Pinckneyville's seven hits.
The Panthers (15-14) are running out of chances to get into a groove, and will look to finish the regular season strong this weekend at the "Ish" Smith Classic in Greenville with games at 10:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.