BASEBALL: Mistakes haunt Panthers vs. Murphysboro
A bunch of little mistakes by the Panthers added up to four unearned runs for Murphysboro, more than enough to account for the difference in the Red Devils' 8-6 win over Pinckneyville at Rigdon Field last Thursday afternoon.
The Panthers committed five defensive errors, issued a total of eight walks, and hit two Murphysboro batters over the course of the game while allowing only four hits.
"We definitely feel like we could have won the game," said PCHS head coach Dan Blazier. "We gave up eight runs, and seven of those were scored by kids that got on with either a walk or an error. Five of those seven were the first batter of an inning. You can't let that happen. It's frustrating because we made errors, absolutely, but I know we'll fix it."
Nolan Luke, Trent Hicks and Justin Bauersachs each had hits in the three-run bottom of the first for the Panthers. PCHS also benefitted from a pair of errors that inning by the Murphysboro defense.
The Devils began to chip away at the 3-0 PCHS lead almost immediately. Landen Harris led off and reached on an error and later scored in the top of the second. Kaleb Jarrett led off the third inning and reached on an error - he later scored as well. Brent Mezo made it three innings in a row that a leadoff man reached on a miscue and scored, tying the game at 3-3 heading to the bottom of the fourth. At that point, Murphysboro had yet to register a hit off of the Pinckneyville starter, Hicks.
The Panthers responded in the bottom of the fourth inning to regain the lead. Clayton Houghland led off with a walk, Lucas Carter singled, and Hicks was intentionally passed to load the bases with two outs for Adam Banach. Banach made the Devils pay with a two-run single and Justyn Rushing followed with a base hit of his own as PCHS jumped on top 6-3.
But the Devils had an answer in the top of the fifth as Jarrett, Daryl Murphy and Harris all singled and three other batters reached base either on a walk or a hit-by-pitch. When the dust settled, Murphysboro had tied things up again at 6-6.
Banach relieved Hicks in the sixth and walked the leadoff man, Jarrett, before an error put two men on for Cody Wills, who also walked. Harris followed with a go-ahead single, and the Devils held the Panthers off the board the rest of the way to hang on to the victory.
Pinckneyville finished the game with seven hits, one apiece by Carter (1-5), Luke (1-4, 2B), Hicks (1-3, BB), Banach (1-4), Rushing (1-3, HBP), Bauersachs (1-4) and Tyler Rulevish (1-3, SAC).
Hicks tossed five innings and gave up three earned runs on three hits, five walks and two hit batters. He struck out five, as did reliever Banach, who finished off the last two frames while allowing one earned run on one hit and three bases on balls.
"We're definitely progressing," Blazier said, "and fairly quickly. Again, we've got little things that we've got to do better - baseball plays. I talked to the kids about it afterwards, but we're definitely progressing. The defensive stuff I'm not worried about, we'll fix it."
PCHS (1-4) hosts Carbondale on Friday before traveling to Harrisburg on Saturday.
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pinckneyville 19, Hamilton County 9 (Wednesday; 6 innings)</span>
On Wednesday, the Panthers picked up their first win of the season, and the first of Blazier's career as head coach - a 19-9 six-inning short game victory at Hamilton County.
"It was great, I was happy for the kids because we needed it," Blazier said. "We needed a W instead of an L. There were some things we did that we need to fix, but we swung the bats very well."
The onslaught began almost as soon as the Panthers got off the bus. The first five hitters all reached base and a total of thirteen batters came to the dish in the nine-run top of the first for Pinckneyville.
PCHS would tack on insurance runs throughout the game - one in the second, two in the third, three in the fourth and three in the sixth.
Luke (3-4, BB, HBP), Hicks (2-4, 2 BB) and Bauersachs (2-3, 2 BB, HR) led the offense for the Panthers with multi-hit efforts. Carter (1-3, 2 BB, HBP), Rushing (1-5, 2B), Colton Nelson (1-4, BB) and Andrew Huggins (1-3, 2 BB) also had hits against the Foxes.
Houghland got the win on the mound, going four innings and surrendering two earned runs on four hits, a walk and two hit batters with six strikeouts. Bauersachs finished off Ham-Co with two innings of work allowing two earned runs on three hits and walk, fanning four.