It was a week ago that the Panthers played to a scoreless draw against the Sting and without missing a beat the defense and pitching picked up right where it left off.
After a lead-off walk, a single and a sac bunt the Shamrocks had runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out in the bottom of the first inning and looked to be threatening to score. With the cleanup hitter up the Panthers buckled down and induced a fly ball to right fielder #93 Pat Donnelly. A catch and a quick throw to the plate caught lead-off hitter Cam Armstrong tagging from 3rd, ending the inning and keep the scoreless streak alive for the Panthers. The rest of the game went smoothly as the Panthers allowed only 5 more base runners over the final 6 innings, all of whom ended up stranded after the 3 outs of each inning. A solid pitching performance by all 3 pitchers #23 Kevin ‘Nutty’ Ford, #9 Dave Size, and #41 Harold Passmore
A lackluster performance at the plate last game, including 14 K’s was not a performance any team wants to remember, or worse, relive. Thankfully that wasn’t the case as in the second inning with a runner on second and an 0-2 count #13 Brandon Rogers hit a deep fly ball to left-centre field for an RBI triple, driving in the first run of the season for the Panthers. Although it proved to be the eventual winning run, the Panthers still added a few insurance runs in the 5th (knocked in by #93 Pat Donnelly and #23 Kevin ‘Nutty’ Ford) and 6th (knocked in by #7 Adam Northern). Finally putting some runs up on the board the Panthers got their first win of the season, hopefully with more than a few more to follow.
Player of the game: #93 Pat Donnelly