Panthers drop two road games

GLENWOOD — Thursday the Panthers (13-9, 8-5) dropped a costly Hawkeye 10 win in Glenwood, falling 8-3.

"We did not execute well enough to win," coach Brandon Phipps said. "We need to learn from our mistakes and continue to grow as a baseball team."

Freshman Logan Stehr, a consistent batter who leads the Panthers in singles (16), connected to make it on first in the top of the first. He made it to second on a sacrifice play by Tanner Ray but was stranded there.

The Rams (6-13, 5-8) took advantage of a slow pitching start by Ray, loading the bases on two walks and a hit by pitch. Glenwood designated hitter Charlie Hutchcraft scored two on a double to give the Rams the early lead. A third would score before the inning was up.

"Defensively, we did some things that were out of character that allowed for them to have some timely innings to maintain momentum throughout the game," Phipps said.

Creston made up one run in the second, freshman Brady McDonald making it around the bases on singles by senior Parker Varner and eighth grader Mason Wilson and a sacrifice RBI by senior Camden Smith.

“At the plate we did a lot of nice things and had guys on base all night long, but we ran ourselves into some outs when we had opportunities for big innings,” Phipps said.

The Panther defense was strong through the second and third innings, Ray leading the charge with two strikeouts to start the second. A pop fly caught by Stehr ended the inning. In the third, Ray had two more strikeouts and the Panthers caught Ben Carlo stealing second, again escaping unscathed.

Ray pitched for nearly five innings, striking out eight batters, allowing seven hits and six runs.

Tom Mikkelsen, with help from courtesy runner Cason Scarberry, made it around the bases on a single by McDonald and a double from Varner, putting the Panthers down just one run.

Varner leads the team this season in hits (27) and batting average (.415). Mikkelsen is second in both stats with 20 and .317. McDonald leads with 19 RBIs, Varner just behind at 18.

A slide on defense saw Creston give up two runs in the fourth and two in the fifth, going down 7-2. After the sixth run, the Panthers brought McDonald in on the mound.

The trouble continued as Hutchcraft hit an RBI triple against McDonald to put up that seventh run, but McDonald closed the inning with two strikeouts to staunch the scoring.

The Panthers loaded the bases in the sixth, Mikkelsen and McDonald logging singles while Wilson was walked. A fly out by Smith gave the senior his second RBI of the night as he scored Mikkelsen for his second run.

Another run in the sixth saw Creston down 8-3, and they couldn’t garner offensive momentum in the seventh, ending the game with their fifth Hawkeye 10 loss. Earlier this season, Creston defeated Glenwood 4-3 at home.

Saturday, it was a disappointing one-run loss for the Panthers as they fell 6-5 to Bedford (15-5) in extra innings after a roller coaster game.

Ray and Stehr each put up two runs in the loss with Tyler Riley logging one. Ray and Riley lead the team this season in runs with 16 each.

On the mound, Varner pitched nearly seven innings, striking out eight batters and allowing five runs.

The game was tied at multiple points, 1-1 after one, 4-4 after five and 5-5 after seven.

Creston tied up the game in the top of the seventh on a double by Mikkelsen that batted in Ray. Through the extra innings, the Panthers put 10 runners on base, two runners making it to third, but no one could clinch that winning score.

It was an infield error by the Panthers that ended up giving up the game, Bedford’s Cal Peterman using it to his advantage to score the walk-off run.

The Panthers have a big matchup tonight at home in a doubleheader with Kuemper Catholic (11-8, 7-5). Creston still sits third in the Hawkeye 10, but Kuemper is closing in. The Panthers need to win at least one to maintain their position.

The rest of the week sees two more conference games, both on the road. Tuesday Creston plays at Shenandoah and Thursday at Clarinda.