BASEBALL: Panthers, Chapman catching fire
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[It has been a season of ups and downs for Panther baseball, but Pinckneyville increased their current winning streak to four games on Tuesday with a 10-0 shutout of the Lions at Carterville behind another ace-like start from right-hander Evan Chapman.
The Panthers plated eight runs in the fourth inning to pull away as Chapman cruised through six innings, allowing three hits and two walks to go along with six strikeouts for the win.
Chapman allowed a two-out double by Daniel Allen in the first inning and little else through four, and in the bottom of the fourth the Panthers sent thirteen men to the plate and brought eight of them home.
The big inning started with singles by Bryant Shute and C.J. Opp, then Chapman got PCHS on the board with a one-out RBI base hit. Noah Hepp, Colton Nelson, Hunter Queen, Luke Miller, Joey Burris and Opp would all drive in runs during the rally.
Hepp would double and score in the fifth on an RBI by Nelson, and Opp drove in Shute with a double in the sixth for a ten run lead.
Sammy Stearns absorbed the bulk of the beating for Carterville, but only two of his eight runs allowed over four innings were earned.
It was plenty for Chapman to work with. He pitched around singles by Steven Wood in the fifth and Patrick Brown in the sixth, fanning Keegan Henderson to end the game after five-and-a-half innings.
Chapman is 3-0 in three starts since a rough outing against Anna-Jonesboro back on April 18. Since then he has surrendered just three earned runs in eighteen innings pitched.
Pinckneyville had 13 hits in the game, three each from Opp (3-4, 2B, R, 2 RBI) and Shute (3-3, 3B, BB, 3 R). Queen (2-4, 2B, R, 2 RBI), Miller (1-4, R, RBI), Burris (1-3, BB, RBI), Chapman (1-4, RBI), Hepp (1-3, 2B, 2 R, RBI) and Nelson (1-3, 2B, R, 2 RBI) also hit safely for the Panthers.
PCHS (12-11, 4-6) heads to Murphysboro for a game on Wednesday, hosts Waltonille on Thursday, then is scheduled to play at Harrisburg on Friday.