PANTHER BASEBALL SWEEPS DESERT WITH TWO MORE WINS

Panther Baseball continues their quest for a conference championship and 2022 playoff bid with a sweep of Desert over the weekend.  The Panthers defeated COD 9-5 Thursday and 14-5 Saturday.

Thursday, the Panthers were up 6-0 before COD scored their first run in the 3rd inning after Nate Slaman and Zach Kim knocked RBI doubles and Kim was able to score on an error.  A passed ball error in the 6th gave Chaffey their 7th run of the game.  In the 8th, singles by Marty Grisso and Bradley Chesterton gave the Panthers the 9-5 win.  

"It was a resilient win for our guys," said Head Coach Andy Smith. "Coach Salsman put it perfectly with the guys: there was plenty of bending but no breaking."

The pitching lineup for the day began with Tyler Tilton who went three innings giving up only 2 hits and 1 run.  He was followed by Ricky Rodarte who earned the win and then Braden Hofmeyer and Josh Sandoval (save).  "Our pitchers did a great job limiting damage.  Tyler Tilton set a great tone for the day and Cole Howarth once again had himself one of those days at the plate.  This puts us in the driver's seat for the rest of the conference.

The Panthers faced off against Desert again Saturday again holding a decisive lead into the 3rd inning.  In the 1st, Ricky Mejia and Steven Mara singled to drive in two of three runs for the inning.  A bases loaded walk accounted for the 3rd.  In the 2nd, Howarth doubled, Mara tripled, and Kim singled taking the score to 8-0.  Two more runs in the 3rd off another Howarth hit and a Troy Holland 2 RBI homer took the game to 11-1.  "It was good to see the bats really come out today highlighted by a great performance out of Troy Holland," remarked Smith.  "He provided five great at bats for us today, but we got a ton of production throughout the lineup." In the 8th, Kim homered and Howarth doubled.  In total the Panthers had 19 hits with Howarth leading the pack with four.

:It's great to win the series and take over control of the conference, but we're far from satisfied.  These guys know we have another big week ahead of us with an SBVC team that's swinging the bats very well."

Today's previously scheduled game vs Valley has been rescheduled to April 4th due to field maintenance.  The teams will begin the three-game series on the 31st instead at SBVC.