The Neosho County Panthers and Cowley Tigers opened up a crucial four game series that will go a long ways to determining seeding for the Regional Tournament and didn't disappoint the large crowd. With the largest crowd of the season on hand game one would take extra innings to decide, and game two would see a Panther comeback come up just short.
 
Matt Strahm got the start on the hill in game one for the Panthers and tossed 7.0 innings allowing only a single run in the first. The sophomore lefty scattered seven hits while walking one and striking out 10. The 10 strikeouts pushed him past the school record for strikeouts in a season and a career. He now has 92 for the year and 168 in his career.
 
Strahm's stellar start would not be enough to earn a win however as the Panthers struggled to string anything together off Cowley starter Derrick Fogul who allowed only three hits in 5.0 innings of work before leaving with an injury.
 
The Panthers would finally push their first run across in the bottom of the seventh when Nick Feighner's two out triple scored pinch runner Chance Sinclair to push the game to extra innings.
 
Cowley would regain the lead in the top of the eighth after a balk by reliever Josh Merrill, but Merrill would close the inning down without any further damage.
 
Adam Giacalone would draw a one out walk in the eighth to bring the go ahead run to the plate. After a groundout Garrett Schaede would draw a walk to move Giacalone into scoring position. Robbe Ewing's two out single would score Giacalone. Jordan Musto would follow that with a single of his own to score Schaede and give the Panthers the win to open the series.
 
In game two Cowley would jump out to an early lead again with three runs in the second inning, but benefitted from an error allowing two of the runs to score.
 
Cowley would add another run in the fourth on a solo homerun by Tiger second baseman Griffith Roark, but Neosho starting pitcher would answer back in the bottom half as he led off with a towering homerun of his own to put the Panthers on the board. They would add another run in the second on an RBI single by Tyler Palmer to score David Bote.
 
The Tigers would again take advantage of Neosho's miscues in the sixth as they would plate three more runs thanks to a pair of Panther errors to take a 7-2 lead.
 
The Panthers would cut into the Tiger lead with three runs in the bottom of the sixth after Giacalone and Bote started the inning with back to back hits. They would plate the first run on Robbe Ewing's single to cut the lead to four. Tyler Palmer would follow that up with a double to score two runs and get the Panthers within two, but that is all the scoring they would muster as they left the bases loaded.
 
Kenny McKee threw a scoreless inning of relief to send the game to the bottom of the seventh with the Panthers trailing by two. Giacalone and Bote would once again lead the inning off with back to back hits to bring the go ahead run to the plate, but they were not able to capitalize as Cowley came away with the 7-5 victory.
 
The split moves the Panthers record to 36-14 overall and 19-11 in Jayhawk Conference play. They are currently a game behind Johnson County for second place in the race to be a regional host after Johnson County split a double header with Coffeyville Community College. Neosho and Cowley will be back in action Sunday at 1:00pm when they play the final two games of the series.