Panthers drop thriller following first win of season
Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 29, 2007
After falling to the Luverne Tigers by 12 two weeks ago, the Georgiana Panthers had revenge on their minds Monday night, but fell just short of the Tigers in extra innings, 5-4.
The Panthers took an early lead over Luverne during Monday's game, but the Tigers stormed back and took a two-run lead going into the final innings.
The Panthers, however, would not give up.
With no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Georgiana's Reco Johnson blasted a two-run homerun to tie the game up at 4-4.
Following Johnson's homerun, the next three Panther batters reached base to load the bases with no outs.
With the winning run on third base and no outs, the Panthers could not reach base again, thus sending the game into extra innings.
In the top of the eighth inning, Luverne scored a run after a hit and walk and then shut down the Panthers in the bottom half of the inning, thus sealing the win.
“We should have won this game,” Georgiana head coach Donald Ray Mixon said. “But Luverne, they are tough and they played a solid baseball game.”
Offensively for the Panthers, Kyle Nelson was 2-for-4 with a run scored, Johnson was 2-for-5 with a homerun and a double, Kevin Brogden was 1-for-4 and Gerard Lee had a triple and a run scored.
For the Tigers, Jacob Sexton and Matthew Sipper each had a pair of hits. Micah Wallace also had a hit while Chad Free knocked a triple for Luverne.
On the mound, Chris Shows earned a no-decision for his six innings of work while Terrence Whittle picked up the loss for the Panthers.
“Chris Shows had an excellent game for us on the mound,” Mixon said. “He pitched a gem today.”
“And Terrence Whittle did an excellent job, but he has all year long,” Mixon added.
The Panthers return to action Monday as they play host to J.F. Shields at 3:30 p.m.
Georgiana 8, Goshen 4 (8 innings)
Donald Scott hit a walk-off, eighth-inning grand slam Friday night to give Georgiana an 8-4 win over the Goshen Eagles, the Panthers first of the 2007 season.
Kyle Nelson and Kevin Brogden were each 2-for-4 on the night while Chris Shows and Scott were each 1-for-3. Shows scored a team-high three runs for the Panthers while Scott blasted the game-winning homerun.
Kevin Ellis scored two run for Georgiana and Reco Johnson scored one in the win.
For Goshen, C.C. Faulkner was 1-for-4 with one run scored.
Shows picked up the win for Georgiana.
“They are beginning to see how good we can be,” Panther head coach Donald Ray Mixon said.