As the second game of the evening, the contest didn’t get started until after 8PM Wednesday on the Rockets home field on a beautiful night for baseball.
Richard Carreno lined the first pitch of the game into left field to get things off to a good start. After a couple outs, Evan Steimle singled to centerfield driving in Carreno with the games first run. The host Rockets came right back in their half when after a strikeout, the next six batters reached base on a hit or walk off Panther starter Braedyn Frank. A caught stealing by Panther catcher Sawyer Copeland and a strikeout ended the Rocket inning after they pushed across three runs.
Rock Falls added two more in their next at bat on the strength of two singles and two walks to make it 5-1 after two.
EP loaded the bases to start the third inning and Steimle coaxed a walk to force in a run. After a strikeout, a hit by pitch of Carter Hadaway and another walk to Cade Huisman pushed across two more Panther runners. Freshman, Kaleb Thompson then contributed an RBI single to center to tie the game at 5.
The Rockets again responded with tallies of their own in every inning until the sixth increasing their lead to 9-5 while their pitchers were combining to keep EP off the board. The Panthers had two singles and two walks in their last four at bats but weren’t able to cut into the deficit.
The first five batters in the Panther lineup reached base twice during the contest but it wasn’t enough to move on. EP closes their season with a 6-17-1 record. The 14-13 Rockets move on to a Saturday contest vs Winnebago in Rock Falls.
