Dan Eyrich, AP Sports
The EP Panther baseball team got their first taste of ball under the lights this season on Wednesday as they picked up their second win of the season defeating Knoxville 10-2 in Prophetstown. A scheduling issued moved the start time of the contest to 6:00.
Alastaire Sweetser and Caden VanHorn combined to limit the Blue Bullets to two hits and one earned run in the win. Sweetser got the start and the win giving up 1 earned run, striking out 5, and walking 5. VanHorn tossed 3 innings gave up 1 hit, no earned runs, walked 1, and struck out 7.
The Panthers got on the board in their first at bat with VanHorn scoring on a fielder’s choice after leading off the game with a walk. EP scored a second run with Braedyn Frank scoring on an infield error on a ground ball by Evan Steimle to put the Panthers up 2-0 after one.
EP added three runs in the second after two were out with Eli Heyvaert scoring on a single by VanHorn and Parker Rangel driving in VanHorn on a single to left. Frank then drove in the third run of the inning with a single to right scoring Tristen Hovey.
Knoxville broke through in the 4th inning with Thorpe smacking a RBI single to right to make it 5-1 EP.
EP answered in the bottom of the inning with Rangel picking up another RBI driving in Sweetser on a single to left putting the Panthers up 6-1.
The home team added to their lead in the bottom of the fifth with Steimle scoring on the fielder’s choice with the Panthers adding their eighth run on an infield error.
Knoxville picked up their second run of the game on an RBI single in the 6th but the Panthers answered scoring twice in their half of the inning as Rangel led off the frame with a first pitch home run to the left, his second of the season, and his third hit and third RBI of the game to make it 9-2. Heyvaert closed out the Panthers scoring hitting into a fielder’s choice driving in Swertfeger for the Panthers 10th run.
Coach Jeff Wunderlich was happy to see his team bounce back from their loss on Monday. “We played much better. Both pitchers threw well and out bats didn’t go to sleep. but we still need to limit out strikeouts.”
The 2-2 Panthers will hit the road on Thursday to take on Annawan-Wethersfield.
