Tuesday's Prep Baseball: Tough days for Panthers and Falcons

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Touring Zion-Benton, a school of 2,757, won its first baseball game of 2010 Tuesday.

The Zee-Bees (1-4) defeated Pinckneyville 9-3 on Rigdon Field at the Perry County Fairgrounds, collecting 13 hits against a pair of Panther hurlers.

Wednesday at 3:30, the Panthers welcome another upstate visitor, Seneca to town.

Pinckneyville has now won just once in six starts.

Zion-Benton scored four times against PCHS starter Hunter Queen (0-1) in the opening two innings and was never headed.

The lead reached 6-0 in the sixth before Pinckneyville broke through.

Landon Chandler led off with a sole home run and Drew Dudek later belted a two-run shot. The roundtrippers by Dudek and Chandler, along with a single from Matthew Nichols, were the only Pinckneyville safeties.

Jeff Thornton tossed the final three-plus innings in relief for the Panthers, striking out six.

FIGHTING FALCONS FALL

At West Frankfort Tuesday, the host Redbirds handled Elverado 14-3 in five innings.

The Fighting Falcons led 2-0 before Frankfort scored 10 times in the third inning.

Landry Arnett doubled in two runs for EHS with Brian McClanahan adding an RBI safety.

The Falcons visit Johnston City Wednesday.