BASEBALL: Panthers beat Trico in nine
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville jumped out to leads of 2-0 and 4-1, but needed extra innings to top Trico 5-4 on Wednesday afternoon in Campbell Hill.
"We did a nice job of jumping out to a lead today, but we stopped doing what made us successful," said Panthers' head baseball coach Alan Engelhardt. "Instead we started trying to do too much at the plate and ended up striking out."
Pinckneyville catcher Adam Barczewski had a huge day in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 and scoring the game-winning run in the top of the ninth inning on Bryant Shute's single. Barczewski finished a triple short of the cycle, scored twice and drove in a pair of runs while also drawing a walk.
The Panthers manufactured a pair of runs in the first, then Barczewski gave PCHS a 4-1 lead in the second with a two-run homer that scored Dylan Hardin, who walked to start the inning.
From there, Rend Lake College signee Matt Bunselmeyer shut down the Panther offense, allowing only a pair of hits after the second inning while he and his fellow Pioneers began to erase their deficit.
A pair of errors allowed Trico to tie it at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth, and it stayed that way until Shute knocked home Barczewski in the top of the ninth off of Daron Meyerhoff.
Noah Hepp, who came on in relief after the seventh inning, allowed a leadoff single in the ninth but got the next hitter to bounce into a double play. A double by Meyerhoff followed, but Hepp struck out Bradley Goetting to end the game.
Hepp (1-2) picked up his first victory of the season going two innings and allowing a pair of hits, no runs and striking out three Pioneers. Hunter Queen started the game for PCHS, throwing five innings, allowing five hits, one earned run and four walks to go along with three punchouts. Evan Chapman worked the sixth and seventh, allowing three hits, no runs and striking out two.
"All three of our pitchers did a great job of keeping us in the game on a day where we didn't defend or swing the bat very well," Engelhardt said.
Barczewski had three of the Panthers seven hits at the plate. Shute (1-5, R, RBI), Hardin (1-3, BB, R), Matthew Nichols (1-4, BB, R), and Joey Burris (1-4, RBI) tallied the others.
"The biggest lesson I hope we can take from today is that we cannot let a bad at-bat or bad play in the field snowball on us," said Engelhardt. "We let some poor at-bats lead to some poor defensive plays in the field."
"We need to understand that baseball is a game of failure and the best players are the ones who can shake off the disappointments they encounter and move forward. If we can take this lesson from today, we will have taken another step forward."
Pinckneyville (10-3) travels to Anna-Jonesboro on Friday (4:30 p.m.).