Pinckneyville, IL — Link to original article: https://bit.ly/4dxOKVR Johnston City starting pitcher Peyton Johnson went the distance and gave up two runs (one earned) on six hits as the Indians downed Pinckneyville, 6-2, in Friday’s Pinckneyville Class 2A Regional championship softball game. The two runs Johnson gave up came in the third inning. Panthers sophomore Kendall Cleland led off the inning with a double. Madison Bruns followed with a single. However, Cleland got caught in a rundown between third and home after tripping on the basepath and was tagged out. Bruns advanced to second on the play. Ella Keene laced a double to score Bruns and tie the game at 1-1. Shea Pyatt reached on an error when Indians second baseman Zoee Cullum and first baseman Sydney Pietrantoni both tried to catch a pop fly, advancing Keene to third. Layla Yates lined out into center field for the second out, which allowed Keene to score and giving Pinckneyville a 2-1 lead. Unfortunately for the Panthers, Briley Hug — the courtesy runner for Pyatt — was tagged out trying to advance to second. “You maybe bust a big inning open right there and make life easier on you down the road,” said Pinckneyville head coach Alan Engelhardt of the inning. “And there were a couple of defensive miscues that we ended up giving them.” Johnson’s offense gave her a lead to work with after the first inning. Cullum hit a leadoff triple on the first pitch of the game and immediately scored on a sacrifice fly from Peyton Smith. The Indians were held scoreless in the second and third innings before scoring one run in the fourth, two runs in the fifth, and one run in each of the sixth and seventh innings to pull away. “It made me relax a lot,” Johnson said of how the offense’s performance helped her out. In the fifth inning, where JC took the lead back for good, Cullum singled with one out before Smith attempted a sacrifice bunted into a fielder’s choice that retired Cullum at second for the second out. Makenzie Mowery walked after Smith stole second to put runners on first and second. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch and then moved advanced another base on another wild pitch, which allowed Smith to score and make it a 3-2 game Indians’ lead. Lilli Armes singled Mowery home to extend the lead to 4-2. “With this group of kids and my one-two punch (Cullum and Smith) at the top of the order, I like to try and score first to put pressure on other teams,” said JC head coach Scott Hutchinson. “I’m not saying they’re the best in Southern Illinois, but they’re pretty darn good.” Cullum had three hits in the win and scored a run. While Smith did not record a hit, she tallied an RBI and scored a run. The Indians improve to 18-10 on the season and will face Anna-Jonesboro in the Murphysboro Sectional next Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. “If you go back to the beginning of the year, we had a bad record. But we were playing good teams early,” Hutchinson said. “I feel like the early schedule against tough teams kind of pushes through. Anna-Jonesboro 10-run ruled us, and I told the kids that we were going to get better, and we have.” Pinckneyville closes its season at 21-9 overall. Johnson recorded a three-hit day along with Cullum. Pietrantoni and Adrianna Wilkening had two hits. Mowery and Armes had one hit each.