Boys Prep Baseball: First win for Diamond Panthers

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville Community High School's baseball team moved into the victory column Saturday afternoon for the first time in 2010, defeating Eldorado 9-2.

The Panthers had started the day with a 10-2 loss to powerful Harrisbirg.

At 4:30 Monday, PCHS (1-4) is slated to visit Trico.

"Hopefully, now that we have a win in our pocket, we can move forward and have a good week with a little less pressure," Panthers coach Alan Engelhardt said. "I thought we made some strides today in both games. In the second game against Eldorado, we were much more aggressive and looked to attack at the plate, in the field, and on the mound."

Against Harrisburg, Pinckneyville managed just four hits and committed three costly errors while walking eight opposing hitters.

C.J. Opp (0-1) took the mound loss. Opp and Matthew Nichols (RBI) had hits for the Panthers with Drew Dudek going 2-for-3.

A five-run outburts in the third broke open the game with Eldorado as the Panthers collected a season's-best 16 safeties.

Dudek was 3-for-4 with Brandon Long also stroking three hits. Opp added two more.

Dudek (1-1) worked the first four innings to gain the mound win with Bryant Shute finishing up.