ELSAH, ILL. – The Principia Panthers hosted the Robert Morris Eagles on Friday, May 1. It was the Panthers senior night, and each of the seniors were honored in between the two games. Unfortunately for the Panthers, they lost a heartbreaker in the first game and then were beat handily in the second game.
Game 1Sawyer Grow received the ball in the first game and did a great job through the first six innings. Grow scattered eight hits and surrendered just two runs through the first six innings of the ball game before running into trouble in the seventh and final inning.
The Eagles were able to knock Grow out of the game in the seventh and
Aleq McMullin entered in relief of Grow. Though he did not allow a hit, the Eagles still managed to tack on a few more runs in the final frame and rallied from down 6-2 to take a 7-6 lead into the bottom half of the seventh inning. The Panthers had the top of the lineup due in the bottom half of the seventh inning but the Eagles called Lewis Applegate out of the bullpen and he retired the Panthers in a one, two, three inning.
The Panthers were held to just five hits in the first game and no one had a multi-hit game. However,
Ed Bargmann smashed his first homer of the seaon in the fourth inning. On the flip side, the Eagles tallied 13 hits in the game and four of their hitters had multi-hit games. This was an especially tough loss for the Panthers as they carried a four run advantage into the final inning but were unable to secure the lead and lost by one run on Senior Night.
Game 2The Eagles carried the momentum into the second game and extended their lead late in the game to come out on top, 9-1. This defeat dropped the Panthers record to 9-23 on the season.
Parker Tibbetts was the starting pitcher in the second game and threw a scoreless initial three innings before two runs in the fourth inning and three runs in the fifth.
Bucky Brewer and
David McClelland each appeared in relief and did their job as they came in and threw strikes.
The Panthers bats were relatively silent throughout the second game as they connected for juts five hits once again and
Gavin Thomas had two of those five hits including a double.
Dallen Russell also ripped a double in the contest. Tonight was not the best showing for the Panthers, so they will look to bounce back in Saturday's double header at Lincoln Christian University. These are the final two games on the 2015 schedule for the Panthers so they will look to end on a good note and attempt to take both games from Lincoln Christian. The games are scheduled for 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.
