SOFTBALL: Ingram, Nashville shut out Lady Panthers at Sectional
Nashville's Maci Ingram, the school's all-time strikeouts leader, fanned 18 Lady Panthers and gave up a measly two hits to help the Hornettes shut out Pinckneyville 5-0 in Tuesday's Class 2A Softball Sectional semifinal in Carterville.
Nashville now awaits the winner of Wednesday's other semifinal between Carmi-White County and Carterville for the chance to make the elite eight in Saturday's championship. Pinckneyville finishes their season at 24-10 with three losses to Ingram and the Hornettes.
"Maci threw extremely well today," said Nashville head coach Dempsey Witte. "I think she's pitching the best she's pitched the whole year. She's really hot right now. 18 Ks, anytime you get that kind of performance it's unbelievable, especially against a good hitting team like (Pinckneyville)."
The tone was set in the top of the first inning when Ingram fanned Kylee Kling, Brooklyn Morrow and Maddie Jones on just ten pitches. The first dozen outs recorded by Nashville came via the strikeout.
"We didn't have very good at-bats at all (in the first inning)," said PCHS head coach Alan Engelhardt. "That's one thing we talked about, you have to be aggressive early in the count on her, and we weren't."
Emma Banach's single in the top of the second inning and Morrow's double in the fourth were the only signs of life the Lady Panthers' offense showed against Ingram. Their only other base runner came on a dropped third strike that allowed Banach to reach first base.
"We were swinging underneath everything," Engelhardt said. "We just didn't adjust. The kids who did, Brooklyn gets on top of one and it's probably (a home run) anywhere else in southern Illinois. She gets on top of one and drives a really deep double, Maddie followed it up with a good at-bat - even though she struck out, she had an eleven or twelve pitch at-bat. Those are the kind of at-bats you have to have all day, you can't just have two of them in one inning."
Nashville's offense showed up, too. The Hornettes strung together a double by Karly Stanowski and singles by Alli Liske and Paige Kasten to go up 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning against Morrow, Pinckneyville's starting pitcher.
Three more hits in the third, and an error on a miscommunication near the first base bag by PCHS's defense, led to three more Nashville runs. Brooke Burcham's RBI double was the big blow of that rally.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, with Mariah Clark on in relief of Morrow, Nashville's Jordi Harre drove a line drive down the first base line into the right field corner. The ball was misplayed, allowing Harre to race all the way around for an inside-the-park home run and the Hornettes' fifth run of the day.
"We made two crucial mistakes in the field," Engelhardt said. "The play at first base was a communication thing. Either you communicate and say flip it, or go tag the base yourself, that's got to be done. Instead, we were late flipping it and it turned into three runs. Then the next inning, it was supposed to be a pitch away, we threw it inner-half, then we took a bad angle in the outfield on top of that."
Eight of the nine Nashville batters had hits in the game, including three by Mackenzie McFeron (3-3, R) and two apiece by Liske (2-3, RBI) and Kasten (2-3).
"I like where we're at," Witte said. "I'm excited about the way we're playing right now. We've got a lot of confidence, each player is putting the ball in play and taking good quality at-bats, moving runners. We're playing our best softball right now."