Panthers take care of business on opening night

CORNING — Creston’s baseball team did a number of things well, has a few areas to work on early in the season.

Night one of the 2017 season ended with the Panthers on the right end of the scoreboard.

A strong start early and solid pitching from Jaden Driskell and Dustin Merritt helped the Panthers to a 6-1 win at Southwest Valley in nonconference play for both teams on the first night of the 2017 season.

Panthers coach Steve Birchard was satisfied with opening night.

“A ‘W’ is always good,” Birchard said. “You can’t argue with that.”

Driskell led the charge on the mound, pitching five innings of one-hit ball. Merritt finished off the final two innings without allowing a hit.

“Jaden did a really nice job filling it up with strikes,” Birchard said. “Dustin Merritt came in and did a really nice job.”

Southwest Valley’s offense could not quite find a rhythm against the Creston pitchers.

Even then, the Timberwolves showed better signs than it did a year ago in a loss to the Panthers.

“With what we lost in our lineup, only winning five games and how the game turned out at Creston, I was pleased to play a full game, especially against a 3A school and us being a 1A school now,” said Southwest Valley coach Kenny Namanny

The Timberwolves batters were able to make contact more often this year against Creston as compared to last.

“Last year, we wouldn’t have put the ball in play as much,” Namanny said. “As much as we didn’t get a much of hits by any means or score a bunch of runs, but we didn’t strike out a lot either and that was our problem last year, putting the ball in play. We did that more. That’s a good sign.”

Creston’s offense came alive early.

The top of the lineup took charge, led by tested veterans Kadon Hulett, Cody Crawford and Driskell.

Hulett had two hits.

“That was good to see (Hulett) get off to a good start,” Birchard said. “Cody (Crawford) hit the ball well.”

The Panthers sputtered a bit later, leaving a number of runners on base.

“We didn’t put the ball in play,” Birchard said. “That’s something we haven’t worked on much is situational hitting. We’re trying to get our swing down right now. We need to get better overall.”

Monday was the first varsity action for several Panthers.

“We had a lot of nerves going on,” Birchard said.

Southwest Valley’s pitchers settled down after a tough start.

“We pitched to contact. That worked,” Nammany said. “That kept us in the game.”

UP NEXT - Creston, 1-0, opens Hawkeye 10 Conference play tonight (Tuesday) against Glenwood in Creston. First pitch for the JV game is set for 5:30 p.m., with the varsity to follow at approximately 7:30 p.m.

Southwest Valley, 0-1, travels to Anita for a non-conference game against CAM. First pitch for JV is schedule for 5:30 p.m., with the varsity at 7:30 p.m.

Crest 023 010 0 — 6 5 3

SWV 000 100 0 — 1 1 2

Visitor pitchers Jaden Driskell 7K 1BB, 6. Dustin Merritt 2K 2BB and Beau Barncastle. Home pitcher Cole Swenson 1K 0BB and Adcock. W — Driskell . L— Swenson. HR — None. 3B — none. 2B — C: Kadon Hulett 1, Cody Crawford 1. RBI — C: Luke Latham 2, Eli Loudon 1. Multiple hitters — C: Hulett 2.