BASEBALL: Pinckneyville takes down Nashville, Carmi
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville baseball has their longest winning streak since March 29 after a big 11-3 win at Nashville on Friday and a doubleheader sweep at Carmi on Saturday.
The Panthers had lost four out of five heading into Friday's game at Nashville, but against the Hornets they put on the kind of all-around performance many have been waiting to see from last year's conference champions all season long.
Things didn't start well for PCHS starter Evan Chapman as the right-hander allowed two runs on three hits in the first two innings before the Panthers got their first hit at the plate.
Noah Hepp led off the top of the third with a double, one of six Pinckneyville hits in the seven-run inning for the visiting Panthers. Bryant Shute and C.J. Opp each had RBI before Chapman put the exclamation point on the inning with a two-run bomb to left for a 7-2 lead.
Chapman allowed a one-out single, an error at third base, and a double to start the bottom of third as Nashville crept closer at 7-3, but the senior hurler would allow only two hits the rest of the game while getting eight of the last fourteen outs via the strikeout.
Shute added a three-run homer in the fourth, then Chapman singled and scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to complete the scoring.
Nashville's John Goodrich was chased after five innings, allowing ten earned runs on nine hits and three walks.
Chapman went the distance, fanning ten and allowing seven hits, a walk, and three earned runs.
Pinckneyville totaled eleven hits off the Hornets, two each from Shute (2-4, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI), Opp (2-3, 2B, BB, R, 3 RBI), Chapman (2-3, HR, HBP, 2 R, 2 RBI) and Marian Brammeier (2-4, R). Hepp (1-4, 2B, R), Luke Miller (1-3, BB, 2 R) and Joey Burris (1-3, HBP, R) had the remainder of the hits.
<u>Panthers sweep DH at Carmi</u>
In game one at Carmi, six different Panthers drove in runs and Opp was a triple short of the cycle in a 7-5 win. Opp and Brammeier singled and scored in the top of the seventh for a pair of insurance runs that proved their worth when the Bulldogs plated two in the home half of the inning.
Justin Bumann got the victory on the pitching mound with five innings of work, five hits and eight walks allowed resulting in three earned runs with one strikeout. Shute got the save, taking over for the final two outs of the seventh after Cole Bigham worked an inning and a third (4 H, 1 BB, 2 ER, 1K).
Opp (3-3, 2B, HR, BB, 2 R, RBI), Miller (2-3, 2 BB, R), Brammeier (2-4, R, RBI), Shute (1-2, 2B, BB, SAC, R, RBI), Hepp (1-3, BB, RBI), Colton Nelson (1-3, R) and Hunter Queen (2-4, 2B, SAC, RBI) had hits for PCHS in game one.
The nightcap was all Panthers. Hepp, Brammeier, Queen, Shute and Justyn Rushing each had hits in a five-run second for Pinckneyville on their way to a 13-4 win.
Shute ran into trouble only once in his five innings on the mound, walking two and allowing three straight singles during the fourth inning. In Shute's other four innings, he allowed only one hit and at one point retired eight men in a row.
Brammeier completed a six-hit day with a 4-for-5 (2B, 2 R, RBI) showing at the plate.
Shute (2-4, 2B, HBP, R, 2 RBI), Opp (2-4, BB, R), Hepp (2-4, BB, 3 R) Rushing (1-2, 2B, SAC, 2 BB, R, 3 RBI), Queen (1-4, 2 BB, R), Miller (1-4, BB, R) and Nolan Luke (2-3, 2 BB, R, 2 RBI) hit safely for Pinckneyville in game two.
The Panthers (11-11) try to get back above .500 for the first time in a month when they meet Carterville on Tuesday at Rigdon Field in their final SIRR Mississippi Division game.