Senior pitcher Kyle Rudolph set a new school record for most credited wins in last week’s first round of GHSA state playoffs. He broke the 11-year record in the first game against Martin Luther King Jr. High School.

“Coach came up to me at the beginning of the year and told me that I was a couple of wins away,” Rudolph said. “So breaking it was a good feeling, and it’s just really cool.”

In the first game, Rudolph struck out six batters and allowed no runs or hits. Offensively, he contributed two runs.

The Panthers swept both games against the Lions, 15-0 and 17-1.

The offense dominated the field with 17 total runs in the second game. Sophomore Tanner Ivaska led the team with three runs. Seniors Ashton Davidson and Rudolph, juniors Brody Whitman and Brock Rein, and freshman Braeden Burkhalter all scored two runs.

“[A game like today] just kind of changes the way we think when we’re going to the plate,” senior Tate Sutton said. “Just not hitting home runs like last year, really just focusing on hitting the ground and having the defense make errors.”

On defense, the Panthers relied on several combinations of both pitchers and catchers starting with junior Parker Williams pitching three innings and four strikeouts along with senior Nick Madison catching the first inning. In the 2nd inning, junior Daniel Briskey took over for Madison. Junior pitcher Will Price captured the win in the fourth and final inning with two strikeouts along with Briskey.

“There’s a little baseball saying, you get up and you completely wash out what just happened and you look forward to the next play and make sure you do right on the next one,” senior Hayden Gentry said. “And as a defense, I feel like we’ve been able to do that a lot this year. We’ve been able to pick up from mistakes and just gather our feet and get up and get the next boy.”

Starr’s Mill hosts Cartersville High School on April 29. The best-of-three series begins at 4:30 p.m.