Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers picked up a big district win coming from behind to beat fellow 1A team Perrin-Whitt at home on Friday.
The Panthers held on to win 6-5 against the Pirates, who days earlier had come back from six runs down to score 12 runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
With Perrin-Whitt being the only other 1A team in the district, a loss would have meant Saint Jo had no shot at winning the district title. The way the team melted down in the first game earlier in the week was uncharacteristic and the Panthers wanted to prove that.
Unfortunately, Saint Jo fell behind in the top of the first inning as three walks and two doubles accounted for four runs from the Pirates, going up 4-0 before the Panthers had even hit yet.
Saint Jo got one run back. Mathew Everson led off and got on base thanks to an error on a groundball to the shortstop. He was out advancing to third base on a base hit from Trevor O’Neal. He would then steal second base before Collin Thomas drove him in with a double to cut the lead to 4-1.
Saint Jo made the call to change pitchers to O’Neal to start the second inning and despite giving up a leadoff single, he induced three groundouts to get out of the inning unscathed.
The score remained the same in the second and third inning despite both teams getting runners on base with chances to score.
It was not until the bottom of the fourth inning when the Panthers swung the momentum of the game.
With two outs, Caleb Hennessey got hit by a pitch. Kile Thurman and Logan Hoover followed with walks to load the bases before Durham came through with a double that drove in two runs.
A passed ball allowed another run to score to tie the game before Everson added one more with an RBI single to give Saint Jo the lead. Everson then stole second and third base before coming home to score thanks to an error at catcher to put the Panthers up 6-4.
After no base runners for either team in the fifth inning, the Pirates got two runners on base with two outs, but O’Neal induced a groundout at third base to get out of it.
It was the same for Saint Jo with its bats as Thurman hit a single and Durham drew a walk to get on with two outs. Unfortunately, a strikeout ended the scoring chance.
Thomas came in to pitch the final inning to pick up the save. It did not start great despite the first two batters hitting balls right to second base and left field. Unfortunately, back-to-back fielding errors allowed one run to score as Perrin-Whitt cut the lead to one down 6-5 and Saint Jo rattled.
After a talk from Coach Bob Bowden, the team then got a huge defensive play.
A line drive right up the middle was stopped as Thomas used quick reaction to catch it in the air before whirling around to throw the runner at second base out for a double-play.
It was a big emotional moment in the game, but the Pirates were not done yet. The next batter drew a walk and a groundball to the shortstop produced the third error of the inning.
Shortstop Durham got another chance the next batter as a groundball was hit to him and he threw him out at first base to secure the win for the Panthers 6-5.

Nocona
The Nocona Indians baseball team lost their second game against Lindsay on the road Friday night.
The Knights won 10-0 after five innings by run rule, though it was not as bad as the first game between the two teams earlier in the week.
Charlie Fuller got one base with a single to left field with one out in the top of the first inning. Unfortunately, it would be Nocona’s only hit of the game.
Walker Murphey hit a groundball and got on base thanks to an error at second base to put two runners on. Unfortunately, two strikeouts followed to end that scoring chance.
Wesley Murphey got the start on the mound and despite giving up a two out walk in the opening inning came away unscathed.
It looked Lindsay was primed to start scoring in the second inning as a single, hit batter and a fielding error loaded the bases up with no outs. Murphey got out of the jam by striking out the next two batters and inducing a groundout at shortstop.
Carson Peters led off for the Indians in the third inning and got on base thanks to another error from the Knights. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt before Fuller made contact that resulted in another error to put runners at second and third base with one out.
Unfortunately, the worst thing that could have happened did. The next batter hit a fly ball to the shortstop who then threw the ball home in time to tag the runner out for the inning ending double-play.
That ended up being the best chance at Nocona scoring and from there on out, the game flipped to Lindsay’s favor.
The Knights scored six runs in the bottom of the third inning thanks to a double, a single, a hit batter a walk and three fielding errors. Lindsay added one more in the fourth inning on another error before adding three more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning thanks to three walks and two more fielding errors.
The Knights won 10-0.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.