SOFTBALL: Lady Panthers beat Marissa despite mistakes

PCHS committed six errors on defense, but their offense bailed them out in a big way as the Lady Panthers routed Marissa 12-2 in six innings on Thursday in Pinckneyville.

Brooklyn Morrow cranked her thirteenth home run of the season, adding to her school record for round-trippers in a season. She now has 24 homers in her three-year career at PCHS. Emma Banach also went deep for the Lady Panthers.

"I think sometimes its difficult to play when you know you're a little bit better than your opponent," said Pinckneyville head coach Alan Engelhardt, "and I don't think we were mentally ready to play today. We made a lot of mistakes, and at this point in the year that's stuff that can't be happening."

"Our offense picked us up, we sat back and drove some pitches. Brooklyn hit a couple balls really hard, the one got out. Emma sat back and hit one out. Good things happen when you sit back and hit the ball hard."

The Lady Panthers trailed 1-0 and 2-1 in the game before exploding at the plate in the third inning with five runs. Morrow, Josie Gleason and Kearsten Opp all had RBIs in the rally.

Morrow's bomb made it 7-2 Pinckneyville after four innings, then Banach homered to start a three-run fifth for PCHS. Banach delivered her third RBI of the day in the sixth moments before Morgan Gleason drove in the walk-off game-winner.

In the circle, Morrow didn't allow an earned run and gave up four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts.

"She had to work around a lot of stuff because we were not very good in the field today," Engelhardt said. "We'd been really good the last two days, but today weren't just weren't there mentally. We've just got to be better."

Morrow (3-3, R, 2 RBI, HR), Banach (3-4, R, 3 RBI, HR), Opp (2-3, RBI, 2B), Kylee Kling (1-3, 2 R, BB), Maddie Jones (1-3, R, BB) and Josie Gleason (1-2, 2 R, RBI, BB) had hits for Pinckneyville.

The Lady Panthers (21-9) are at Goreville on Saturday and back home on Monday against Centralia before beginning Regional action at Du Quoin on Tuesday, May 19.