The Red Devils came in with an impressive 22-9 record and their hard hitting offense showed why they are highly rated.
The visitors came out swinging against Panther starter Braedyn Frank as the first 3 batters reached base with solid singles to the outfield. A strikeout of the cleanup hitter paused the scoring but a single and double followed putting four runs on the board. A caught stealing by Panther catcher Sawyer Copeland and another strikeout by Frank ended the threat.
The Panthers came right back in their half of the first as Richard Carreno singled ahead of Frank’s long home run to left field. That was Frank’s second of the season and EP’s fifth. Gavin VanDyke followed with a single but the Devils standout pitcher Luke Bryant got the next 3 batters to end the inning with Hall up 4-2.
That was the end of the Panther offense as the next 12 hitters were retired in order with no-one reaching base.
Hall scored in every inning as they had 15 hits on the night along with 2 bases on balls.
EP continued their month of May hitting slump as they have only scored 11 runs in their last 9 games.
The Panthers enter into the IHSA State Tournament next week as they travel to Rock Falls Wednesday for a 4:30 contest.
