BASEBALL: Late rally ends slide for Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville snapped their seven-game losing streak in baseball Thursday, coming back from down 8-5 in the sixth to win 12-11 against Marissa.
"It was nice to get back on the winning track today," said Panthers' head baseball coach Alan Engelhardt. "It all started with Joey Burris giving us five solid innings on the mound and allowing us to get some traction on offense."
Burris' final stat line didn't reflect how well he threw for the first five innings of the game, in which the hurler held the Meteors to just a pair of first-inning runs.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Panthers jumped ahead when Hunter Queen walked and scored on an RBI fielder's choice by Bryant Shute, then Matthew Nichols drove in Shute and Taylor Beninati with a two-out single. Nichols came around to score on a single by Justin Bumann, and PCHS led 4-2.
Pinckneyville tacked one on in the fifth inning, but Marissa snatched all the momentum in the top of the sixth. Five hits by the Meteors and three errors by the Panthers turned into a six-run frame and 8-5 lead for the visiting team.
Rather than duck their heads, PCHS responded with a big inning of their own.
Beninati led off with a walk then scored on a double by Adam Barczewski. Brandon Long followed with a single, then Shute drove both Long and Barczewski across the plate with his base hit.
Nichols doubled, scoring Shute, then came in himself when Burris reached on an error. Marian Brammeier, who had singled, scored on Queen's sac-fly, then Beninati returned for his second at-bat of the inning and drove in Burris for a 12-8 Panther lead.
"In the sixth, we reverted to some of the problems that have plagued us the past few games," Engelhardt said. "We gave Marissa 3 extra outs in the inning to give them a big inning. However, it was great to see us compete to come back and score 7 runs of our own in the bottom of the sixth."
Shute came in to pitch the seventh, but struggled and allowed three runs to cross before making a swift defensive play to retire the final batter on a groundout with the bases loaded.
Shute had a stellar day at the plate with three hits, three runs and three runs batted in. He also stole a pair of bases. Nichols (2-4, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI) and Beninati (2-3, 2 R, RBI) each had two hits in the game.
Barczewski (1-5, 2B, R, RBI), Long (1-3, HBP, R), Brammeier (1-2, R), Bumann (1-1, HBP, RBI), Burris (1-4, R) and Queen (1-3, R, RBI) also hit safely.
"We hit the ball pretty well today and ran the bases very well," Engelhardt said. "It was good to see us out there having fun again."
Saturday Pinckneyville (20-10) is at Greenville for the Ish Smith Classic, taking on Red Bud (Noon) and Vandalia (2:00 p.m.).