Thursday's prep softball: Lady Panthers take giant step in SIRR
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville Community High School's girls softball team took a giant step towards taking control of the topsy-turvy Mississippi Division race in the River-to-River Conference Thursday afternoon, defeating Anna-Jonesboro 9-7 at Greg Hale Field.
The Lady Panthers are 16-1 overall and holds five wins in six SIRR outings. A-J (16-4, 4-2) fell a game behind and into a second place tie with Sparta. Nashville and Du Quoin are close behind with three defeats.
"This was a big win in the conference," Lady Panthers coach Greg Hale said. "A win is a win in this conference right now. Beating A-J again helps us a far as the regional seedings go and we now have a leg up in the conference, too."
Taylor Cicardi touched Anna-Jonesboro ace Rachel Hayden for a three-run, opposite field home run to put PCHS in front to stay 3-2 in the fourth inning. The Lady Panthers would never look back and the lead grew to 9-2 after Lindsay Patterson relieved Hayden.
Kortney Crawford's two-run blast and a bases loaded triple from Sara Malanowski chased home five fifth inning tallies to blow things wide open. Or so it seemed.
In the top of the seventh against Chapman-the third Pinckneyville hurler-Anna-Jonesboro nearly rallied and left the tying run at the plate as the game ended.
Back-to-back errors by the Lady Panthers, who finished the game with seven miscues, opened the floodgates. A two-run hit by Hayden and Chandra Parr's RBI single pulled A-J to within 9-5. Two more runs would score after a pair of sacrifices and two other errors before Chapman slammed the door.
"We had a big lead and let A-J get right back in the game," said Hale.
"We need to learn from this experience and our defense really needs to shore itself up. We just need to learn how to close games."
Mo Ramsey had the lone multi-hit game for Pinckneyville, but seven other Lady Panthers-including Maddy Keith, Emily Miller and Sheristy Stanton-all added hits.
Chapman entered to start the fourth after Kelsey Cicardi and Malanowski worked the first three frames.
"We had some clutch, clutch hitting from Crawford, Cicardi and Malanowski," Hale concluded. "We've outscored everybody all year and have relied on good defense and solid pitching."
At 4;15 Friday, as a prelude to the Southern Illinois Showcase, the Lady Panthers host Pleasant Plains. A full junior varsity game follows.
Saturday in the SI Showcase, Pinckneyville plays Cumberland (10 a.m.), St. Joseph-Ogden (2:30) and Teutopolis (4:00).
2010 Southern Illinois Showcase
All games at Perry County Fairgrounds
Greg Hale Field
Pinckneyville vs. Cumberland, 10 a.m.
Johnston City vs. Williamsville, 11:30
Johnston City vs. Cumberland, 1:00
Pinckneyville vs. St. Joseph-Ogden, 2:30
Pinckneyville vs. Teutopolis, 4:00
Jim Pick Field
St. Joseph-Ogden vs. Pleasant Plains, 10 a.m.
St. Joseph-Ogden vs. Carterville, 11:30
Teutopolis vs. Pleasant Plains, 1:00
Williamsville vs. Carterville