Louisville, KY. -- This weekend, the Panthers traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to face the Spalding University Golden Eagles. Both teams competed hard on the field and at bat. Spalding was not going to be an easy team for the Panthers to beat but they came fired up and ready to face the challenge.
Game 1: Principia 5 Spalding 6
In game one, Principia started strong by getting on the board first. The Panthers led most of the game until one inning where they had a few mistakes that took them out of the lead, but they fought till the end even though the outcome wasn't what they wanted it to be.
On the offense, Principia's bats were on fire. Runners got on base and batters brought them home, scoring two runs in the first inning. The Panthers scored again in the fourth inning and didn't score again until the seventh inning. Freshman
Delaney Gatine and junior
Lauren Daugherty both had three hits in that game.
Alyssa Hudenburg,
Hannah Hathaway, and
Leah Schaefer added two hits of their own to help the team score some runs. Both Daugherty and Schaefer had doubles and Daugherty also had a home run that brought the team within one run of Spalding.
Defensively, the Panthers shut down Spalding for the first four innings. There were several great plays that were made, and the Panthers held it together even if a Spalding runner got on base. In the fifth inning, the Panthers ended up making errors that hurt them in the final outcome of the game. Spalding started to put runners on base and the Panthers struggled getting routine outs. Even though they did not end up coming back and winning, Principia played a very good game against a very good team.
Game 2: Principia 0 Spalding 8
In game two, the Panthers did not exactly pick up where they left off in game one. The Panthers still played good defense in a few of the innings, but it wasn't enough to keep Spalding off the board. On the offensive side, the Panthers had a hard time getting the bats going.
The Panthers had seven hits in game two but none of them got a runner across home plate. Almost everyone but a few players had a single hit in the game and
Christina Redington had two hits. The Panthers could have used a few more hits to get a better result, but it wasn't quite there in game two.
On the defense side, the Panthers didn't show up with their best effort. Spalding scored in the first inning, but the Panthers held them to one run. Over the next few innings, the Panthers allowed a few runs and played solid defense. Closer to the end of the game though, the Panthers started to fall apart and mistakes started to happen again. Spalding hitters started to figure out
Leah Schaefer's pitches and made good contact. The Panthers got themselves into a bit of a hole and had a hard time getting out of it. The Golden Eagles took game two easily, 8-0.
Up Next:
The Panthers play home on Tuesday the 16th against Greenville University at 6pm and 8pm.
