Panthers sweep Ottawa JV, 16-0, 12-1 in Tuesday baseball action

Cleansing the palette from dropping three games in a KJCCC baseball series against Labette, the Neosho County Panthers dominated Ottawa JV at home on Tuesday, 16-0, 12-1.

With Neosho County’s bullpen struggling in recent weeks, getting fresh arms some fresh opportunities on the hill was a point of emphasis.

“We needed to get some pitchers on the mound that haven’t pitched a lot to see what they can do,” Neosho County head coach Steve Murry said. “We need to see if they can be part of the weekend mix. And we saw some good things today.”

Over the two games, the Panthers’ pitchers limited Ottawa JV to five hits. Ryan Pacha got the win in Game 1, tossing four frames of shutout ball with no walks and one strikeout.

Camden Horak matched Pacha’s four innings of work in Game 2, notching the victory.

“We’ve talked at length about attention to detail and focus,” Murry said. “We got that today. But they’ve got to focus.”

At the plate, the Panthers pounded out 22 hits — 11 apiece in each game — over Tuesday’s series. Luke Briley had three knocks in Game 1 while Jamon Beck mirrored Briley’s effort in Game 2.

“They’re all pretty young hitters and battling for the team lead in average and RBIs,” Murry said. “They get exposed if they have a bad day, and they’re greedy. So they just want to do well. Our hitters have practiced hard and they realize how many games we’ve given away.”

The pair of wins improved the Panthers’ record to 15-12 overall.

Up next

Neosho County faces Pratt in a four-game series, which starts on the road on Thursday. The series moves to Chanute on Saturday for the “Game on for a Cure” cancer awareness games.

“It’s another chance for us to play a normal series and be consistent,” Murry said. “We don’t know anything about Pratt and they don’t know anything about us. We’ll just line up and go play.”