Catching fire for the second straight weekend after an early-season slump, the Neosho County Panthers won three of their four baseball games against Baker on Saturday and Sunday.
Neosho County won Games 1 and 2, 19-5, 17-1. The Panthers dropped Game 3, 10-9, before run-ruling again in Game 4, 10-0.
“I thought we played well in three out of the four games,” Neosho County head coach Steve Murry said. “In Game 3, we just didn’t do anything right, whether it was pitching, fielding or hitting. Our mistakes came back to haunt us.”
JD Troutman had three home runs in the series, pushing his season total to six, which leads the Panthers’ roster.
“He’s got the ability to be a money, money, money ballplayer,” Murry said. “Right now, he’s got a little too much swing-and-miss. But he can change a game around in a quick hurry.”
Blake Ellis caught fire on Sunday, launching two home runs and a double with seven RBIs over the final two games.
“Blake works his butt off,” Murry said. “He wasn’t getting much playing time at the beginning of the season. But he finally got his chance and has been really good ever since. Blake is willing to use all three fields. A lot of players pigeon-hole and pull the ball. But Blake doesn’t do that and he’s really effective.”
The three wins swelled Neosho County’s record back over .500 to 11-9 overall. The Panthers have won six of their last eight games.
“We had a rough stretch,” Murry said. “Nobody got their dauber down. They just put their heads down and went to work. They kept battling. They’re resilient.”
Neosho County’s offense has posted double-digit runs in five of its last seven outings.
“We’ve struck out less and when you cut the strikeouts down, we’re OK,” Murry said. “We’ve got to move runners. We did that all weekend. We scored runners when they were in position. We’re still trying to find our identity.”
Up next
Neosho County hosts Butler on Tuesday before revving up for a return to KJCCC action against rival Allen on Thursday and Saturday — the conference series starts in Chanute before moving to Iola.
“I don’t know much about anybody other than Johnson County at this point. They’re just whopping people and everybody else is splitting,” Murry said. “We’re in that same boat. It’s probably not ideal to have our bye week so early. But it might’ve been ideal. Who knows? Now we know we have to lock in every weekend for a conference series.”
