Thursday's prep softball: Lady Panthers storm past Murphysboro
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville Community High School's girls softball team gained some important regional tournament seeding leverage with a home field Wednesday.
The 23-1 Lady Panthers rocked Murphysboro 12-4, rallying from an early 3-1 deficit. Friday at 4;30, Pinckneyville can sew up another River-to-River Conference title in the Mississippi Division with a win over second place Sparta.
"We got down early and got back into the game by the second inning," PCHS coach Greg Hale said. "Again our offense carried us. We had six players with multiple hits."
Pinckneyville went ahead 4-3 after three and gained total control with a pair of four-run outbursts in the fourth and sixth innings.
Taylor Cicardi was 3-for-4 with a double, home run and three RBI with Dani Jenkel knocking in three runs with a pair of hits.
Kortney Crawford, Maddy Keith, Mo Ramsey and Emily Miller all had at least two hits.
Other Lady Panther safeties came from Sheristy Stanton and Dani Schoenbacher.
Kelsey Cicardi pitched the first frame before winner Sara Malanowski entered to finish things out.
The duo limited the Lady Red Devils to five hits, two coming from Murray State signee Leslie Bridges.
"This was a big win for us," Hale said. "As it has an effect on the regional."
Murphysboro, Pinckneyville and Anna-Jonesboro are all part of what looks to be a rugged Class 2A regional next month.