Panther baseball won the region championships for the 13th time in school history, but this time with a much younger team.
“I hope it means a lot to [the players]. Our first goal every year is to win the region,” head coach Brent Moseley said. “It means a lot to me for them to be able to do it.”
The real pressure came from their series against Harris County where they originally only had to win two games to beat Northside for the region but Northside did not make this easy on them by sweeping their series against Central. The Panthers overcame this with their own sweep of the Tigers late last week.
With seven underclassmen, this team relied on the experience of the upperclassmen from past region wins in order to earn the region title. Most of this year’s upperclassmen were part of last year’s state championship winning team giving the team a lot of winning experience.
“I think they believed they could [win region],” Moseley said. “We didn’t play well against Northside, [which] gave it a little more pressure.”
In their second game against Harris County, the Panthers won 5-1. They started the scoring in the third inning with senior Nick Madison on a sacrifice fly bringing junior Brody Whitman home.
At the top of the fifth, the Tigers retaliated with a run in an attempt to tie the game. Madison came back and doubled, bringing seniors Kyle Rudolph and Ashton Davidson home. In the next play, junior Brock Rein brought sophomore Tanner Ivaska home on a single. At the top of the sixth, Ivaska scored again on an error from the catcher giving the Panthers a 5-1 win over the Tigers.
“[Winning region] shows that when I leave, these guys will still be pretty good and that everybody is putting their minds on the overall goal,” Madison said. “No matter how young they are, they’re still getting the job done and focused on what they need to do.”
On the defense, junior Parker Williams pitched for six innings with four strikeouts and only one run allowed. Senior Aidan Wilson closed out the game for the final inning.
“Throwing strikes early and getting people out early [boosts team morale],” Williams said. “It definitely helps when you’ve got a really great defense behind you which everybody was great at today.”
In the first game of the series, senior pitcher Kyle Rudolph tied the school record for career wins with 23. Starr’s Mill defeated Harris County 1-0 in that game. The Panthers secured the region championship with a win Friday night, 11-0.
The Panthers are currently 16-2 in the region and 21-6 overall.
They will play Martin Luther King High School in the first round of the playoffs at home on April 23.