AUBURNDALE, FL – The Panthers Baseball team closed out their spring training trip to Florida with two games against the Lakeland University Muskies and Knox College Prairie Fire on Friday.
Micah Cook made his second start of the trip in game one vs the Muskies and looked great on the mound. The Panther offense gave him an early cushion to work by plating five in the first, all coming with two outs. Ryan D'Amico and Kalis Mayo walked and an error allowed Gavin Matchell to reach loading the bases. Skyler Stock singled to left scoring two runs, and Braxton Ramsey doubled plating two more. A single by Josh Dement put Ramsey at third, and he scored on a stolen base by Dement.
Both teams settled in and threw up a couple zeros until the Panthers scored again in the bottom of the fourth to stretch the lead to six. Lakeland took advantage a two out error and singled to score their first run of the contest in the top of the fifth. Stock led off the home half with a single, and then with one out, the Panthers rattled off five straight singles by Dement, Cole Christensen, Dean Wood, Ben Perrine, and D'Amico. This stretched the lead to 9-1 and loaded the bases for Principia slugger Gavin Matchell who launched his first collegiate career grand slam.
A walk and an error in the sixth gave Lakeland life as a wild pitch and a sac fly cut the Panther lead to 13-3. Two errors allowed Lakeland to continue to creep back into the game plating three runs on two hits in the top of the seventh. Josh Bayless singled in the bottom of the seventh, and two singles by Matchell and Ramsey pushed the gap to eight. A quick inning of relief by Booth in the top of the eighth allowed the Panthers to jump back on offense. Wood walked and scored a double by D'Amico. An error continued the inning, and D'Amico sprinted home to score on a wild pitch that allowed the Panthers to take the 10-run victory, 16-6.
Game two was a different story for the Panthers. Knox jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first. Pitching settled in for two innings before the Panthers had an inning to forget. Seven walks and an error allowed Knox to score 14 runs on 7 hits before Charlie Reiss entered the game to put out the flames. He stuck out three in the fifth, threw a shutout sixth, and faced the minimum in the 7th. Unfortunately, the damage was already done as the Prairie Fire shut out the Panthers 17-0 by giving up just three hits to Wood, Perrine, and Mayo.
Stat of the Game: The Panthers tallied 19 hits in the win against Lakeland coming off the bats of nine different players. This is the fourth game this season the Panthers have tallied more than 15 hits in a single game.
Did You Know: Gavin Matchell and Ryan D'Amico lead the team with 4 home runs apiece. Their four home runs lead the conference in a 5 way tie. On the mound, Charlie Reiss is also off to a hot start for the Panthers. He has made a team-leading 6 appearances with a team-best 0.90 ERA in 10 innings. He has fanned 11 batters and has earned one win.
Marston's Minute: "We came out and played a great game against Lakeland. They didn't go quietly, but our bats helped secure the win. Game two wasn't how we wanted to wrap up our trip, but when you take away one inning, it's a completely different game. I've got to do a better job of limiting the damage in an inning and keeping us in the game to give us a chance. We've seen what our bats can do, so it's about giving them a chance to get us back into the game."
Up Next: The Panthers will head home and open up conference play in a double header against Webster University on Saturday, March 23 starting at noon. Webster was picked to finish first in the SLIAC in the Preseason Coaches Poll.
