BASEBALL: Rain fails to derail Panthers' winning streak
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Evan Champman continued to throw darts on the mound for Pinckneyville on Thursday afternoon, shutting down Sparta for an 8-1 victory, the Panthers' eleventh in a row on the baseball diamond.
The junior hurler didn't allow an earned run, gave up just four hits and a walk and struck out eight Bulldog hitters. Meanwhile, five different Panthers drove in runs at the plate in a ten-hit effort, led by home runs from Matthew Nichols, Justin Bumann and Taylor Beninati.
"It was good to get back out on the field to play again after watching it rain since last Saturday," PCHS head baseball coach Alan Engelhardt said. "I thought the boys did a nice job of not letting distractions play too big of a role today as this was ACT testing, senior trip, and prom week. Instead, we came out ready to play and really jumped on thier pitching early."
Chapman didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning, and by then his teammates had spotted him an 8-0 head start.
Adam Barczewski singled to lead off the bottom of the first and was sacrificed to second base by Brandon Long. Bryant Shute then doubled in Barczewski, Shute's eighth hit in as many at-bats, a streak going back to last weekend's Pleasant Plains invitational. Shute has hit safely in seven straight games overall.
After Nichols struck out and Joey Burris was hit by a pitch, Marian Brammeier drove in Shute with a single, then Bumann's single plated Burris and Brammeier for a 4-0 Panther lead after one.
Nichols cracked a two-run shot in the second, scoring Long, then Bumann and Beninati added back-to-back solo shots in the third for the other Pinckneyville runs.
Chapman continued to cruise, allowing a pair of singles in the fifth that led to Sparta's only run. He sent the Bulldogs down in order in the sixth, then got a double play ball to end the game in the seventh.
Nichols (2-3, HR, R, 2 RBI), Bumann (2-3, HR, R, 3 RBI) and Beninati (2-3, HR, R, RBI) each had a pair of hits for PCHS. Barczewski (1-3, BB, R), Shute (1-4, 2B, R, RBI), Burris (1-2, R) and Brammeier (1-3, R, RBI) also had hits on Thursday.
"Evan Chapman was very good again for us, throwing seven solid innings, and our six, seven, and eight hitters combined for two home-runs and five RBI," Engelhardt pointed out. "As the bottom of our order continues to get better, we will become tougher and tougher to pitch to."
With prom activities going on Friday, Pinckneyville (17-3, 6-1) is off until Tuesday when they travel to Carterville (4:30 p.m.).
"Our next big test will be to get ourselves ready to play the next couple of weeks to wrap up the regular season," Engelhardt said. "Because of all the rain, we will be playing virtually every day and need to continue to improve to head into the post-season."
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