BASEBALL: Ten-run first inning carries PCHS
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[It was a game of big innings, and Pinckneyville got the biggest one on Tuesday afternoon against visiting Du Quoin.
The Indians started the scoring with a four-run top of the first, but the Panthers pounced on the Tribe in the bottom half of the inning with a ten spot on their way to a 17-9 triumph to move to 4-1 in the Mississippi Division of the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference.
"It was good to see our bats come to life today in a couple of big spurts," said Panthers' head baseball coach Alan Engelhardt. "I thought we had some tremendous at-bats in both the first and fifth innings to put up some runs."
"It was also nice to see us respond to Du Quoin's big innings. Every time they made a run at us, we were able to have a good inning back at them."
Five Du Quoin errors helped account for nine unearned runs allowed to the Pinckneyville offense, and the Panthers were able to chase Indians' starter Trent Bigham from the hill after just two-thirds of an inning.
"You've got to make the plays, and in the first inning we didn't make the plays," said Du Quoin head coach Tim Craft. "Then late in the game we had a chance to cut off some rallies, and didn't make the plays there either."
The Indians looked to be in control after the top of the first, scoring four runs off of Hunter Queen, two coming on an RBI single by Bigham.
Things got ugly in a hurry for Du Quoin in the bottom half, however, as Panthers Adam Barczewski and Brandon Long walked to lead off the inning and Bryant Shute and Matthew Nichols both reached on errors. Joey Burris then singled to drive in Long and load the bases for Marian Brammeier's second home run in as many days, a grand slam over the left center field fence at Rigdon Field.
"It's good to see Marian Brammeier start to find his swing the last couple of games," said Engelhardt, "as well as Bryant Shute and Joey Burris again stepping up to have big days."
Bigham retired the next two hitters before walking Queen, allowing a single to Barczewski, then walking Long. Sam Kuhnert came in to try and stop the bleeding, but walked Shute to send Queen across the plate for a 7-0 Panther lead. Nichols singled to drive in Barczewski, then Burris knocked in Long and Shute before Brammeier flied out to left to mercifully end the inning.
Queen ran into more trouble in the fifth, allowing a leadoff homer to J.C. Davis before loading the bases by hitting Brandon George with a pitch and walking Seth Baxter and Bigham. Conner Wheeler singled to score a pair, then Drew Bennett followed with a double to tack on two more, and Du Quoin had trimmed the lead to 10-9 in favor of Pinckneyville.
The Panthers would answer again in the bottom of the frame.
Queen and Barczewski led off with singles, then Long doubled for an RBI. Shute made it back-to-back doubles for PCHS, scoring Long and Barczewski, and quickly Pinckneyville was back up 13-9.
Conner Wheeler relieved Kuhnert, but couldn't stop three more Panther runs from crossing the plate before retiring the side.
"Every time we staged a little bit of a rally and got some runs, they answered right back," said Craft. "There's not too many games you're going to win when you give up ten runs in an inning and six runs in another inning in the same game."
Queen (2-0) surrendered eight earned runs, but it was good enough for his second win of the season. Shute shut the door in the last two innings, allowing only two hits to pick up the save for the Panthers. Bigham took the loss for Du Quoin, allowing nine runs, but only four earned. Wheeler gave up three tallies in his two innings on the mound, but none were earned.
"We reach the half-way point in conference at 4-1, so we control our own destiny right now," Engelhardt said. "We just need to keep swinging the bats and keep getting better on the mound every game."
At the plate, Barczewski was 3-for-4 and scored 4 runs for Pinckneyville. Shute (3 RBI), Nichols (2 RBI), Burris (4 RBI), Brammeier (4 RBI) and Justin Bumann (2 RBI) each had two hits, and Long (RBI) and Queen had one.
For the Indians, Davis (RBI) and Bennett (2 RBI) had two hits each. Kuhnert, Bigham (2 RBI), Wheeler (2 RBI), Kegan Robbins and Dylan Pyron all had one hit.
The Indians (4-10, 1-4) are scheduled to host Steeleville on Wednesday afternoon, but severe weather on Tuesday night has put the game in question. Pinckneyville (13-3, 4-1) is off Wednesday before traveling to Sparta on Thursday.