Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Neosho County Baseball team was looking for a spark offensively.  They found it on Tuesday as the Panthers put up 10 runs in both games of yesterday's double header, but split winning the first game 10-7 and losing the second 11-10 in heartbreaking fashion.

Independence jumped out early to a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the first game off starter Chance Sinclair.  They added one in the second and built a 6-2 lead going into the bottom of the 5th inning.  That's when the Panther offense came to life.  Freshmen Connor Goedert and Dylan Christie hit back to back home runs in the 5th, and Justin Warne drove in another to bring the score to 6-5 going into the top of the 6th inning.  Sophomore right hander Jeff Boyd threw a scoreless 6th and the Panthers tacked on 5 more in the bottom of the 6th to take a 10-6 lead.  The five run rally was highlighted by a double squeeze from Jake O'Brien that plated two more Neosho runs.  Boyd ran into trouble in the 7th, loading the bases with 2 outs in the 7th, but sophomore Josh Merrill entered the game and slammed the door to preserve the 10-7 victory.  

Game 2 was a back and forth affair that saw the Panthers score in 5 of the 7 innings played.  Neosho jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first, but gave Independence 2 right back in the top of the 2nd.  After taking a 3-2 lead going into the 3rd inning, the Panther defense made 3 errors that led to 4 unearned runs off of starter Jon Furlong.  Neosho responded with 3 in the 4th and 3 in the 5th to take a 10-8 lead, but gave up 1 in the 6th and 2 in the seventh.  Freshman Jake Johnson took the loss on the hill.  The Panthers were led offensively by Connor Goedert, Dylan Christie, Dalton Thompson, and Bobby Wernes, each of which had 2 RBI a piece.

The Panthers take the field for a long road trip starting Thursday at Baker University.  This starts a 14 game road trip for the Panthers highlighted by conference trips to KCK and Labette.  The next home game for Neosho is March 29th, against Johnson County Community College.