With Saturday's sweep of Allen County Community College, the Neosho County Community College baseball team is off to the best start in school history through 35 games. The Panthers swept the Red Devils 9-5 and 13-12 to improve to 30-5, topping the previous best record of 29-6. "To this point in the season, we are doing well, but the only thing it guarantees us, is that we will finish over .500 because there are a lot of games left to play," Coach Steve Murry said.

In game one, it was all about the second inning. Neosho County scored six runs – four of which came on swing of the bat from freshman third baseman Brylie Ware. The grand slam gave the Panthers an early 6-0 advantage. NCCC held Allen County off the scoreboard through three innings, but the Red Devils finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth with a two-run home run surrendered by starting pitcher Brennon Covington. "The wind was blowing to left and he's rehabing an injury," Murry said of Covington. "I really wanted him to get to 92 pitches." He managed to get to that mark, pitching 6 and 2/3 innings.

All of Allen County's runs came off the long ball, including a second two-run blast in the top of the seventh. "He then gave up the two-run home run, and then we pulled him," Murry said. "He got his 92 pitches in. That will help him work on his stamina as the season goes on. We wouldn't have let it get close to where he would have gotten hurt by it." Covington picked up his third win of the season. He struck out five and walked two. Offensively, Ware was 2-for-4 with four RBIs, and freshman Nate Crossman was 2-for-3 with one run scored.

In game two, it was all about the offense. The teams put up a combined six runs on nine hits in the first inning as Allen County jumped out a 4-2 lead after the first frame. The Panthers added five runs in the fourth and sixth innings. "Our offense doesn't ever scare me. Sometimes our defense gets out of whack and our pitching gets way out of whack," Murry said. "We didn't get much pitching (in game two)." The Panthers gave up at least one run through the first four innings of play, but that's when sophomore pitcher Tyler Mitzel came in and settled things down.

He dished out two scoreless innings before surrendering four runs in the seventh inning. "Mitzel did a great job for a couple innings before he lost his concentration," Murry said. "Our team struggles with one-ball, two-strike counts. We want to beat people by getting strike outs. We aren't very good at it right now, and we need to get better at it."

Mitzel earned his fifth win of the season, working three innings, striking out four and walking one. Sophomore closer Drew Johnson came on in the eighth inning for a six-out save, his seventh of the season. Even with the best start through 35 games, the Panthers aren't looking ahead past their next game. "I told someone the other day, we don't even look forward. If you look forward in this conference, someone will jump up and bite you," Murry concluded.

The Panthers will host Ottawa University at 2 and 4 pm today at Hudson Field.