Coming into this weekend's series with Kansas City Kansas Community College, the goal for the Neosho County baseball team was to take three out of the four games.
The Panthers are off to a solid start toward that goal with a sweep of the visiting Blue Devils on Thursday afternoon at Hudson Field.
Neosho County got off to strong starts in both games grabbing a 5-0 advantage in game one and a 14-0 lead in game two en route to a 6-5 and
14-2 sweep.
In game one, the Panthers wasted no time getting on the scoreboard.
With the bases loaded and one out, freshman outfielder Nolan Beets drove in a pair with a single, and the Panthers kept things going in the second with three runs in the third.
KCK mounted a comeback, scoring the next four runs. Every run the Blue Devils scored came with two outs off starting pitcher McCae Allen.
"I thought McCae did great until he got to two outs," Coach Steve Murry said. "Every run they scored was with two outs and nobody on. He needs to learn how to close out innings."
Allen picked up the win, striking out four and walking none over five innings of work, and sophomore Mason Knopp worked a 1-2-3 seventh to earn the save.
Offensively, sophomore Nate Crossman went 2-for-3 at the plate, while sophomores Josh Norlin, Aaron Dees and Beets drove in two runs on one hit.
In game two, Neosho County scored all 14 runs in the first three innings of a 12-run, seven-inning blowout.
Most of the damage was done in the third frame with seven runs, including a grand slam by freshman designated hitter Nate Vossman.
Vossman ended the game 2-for-3 with five RBIs, while Crossman added another three hits. Freshman third baseman Marcus McDaniel also had two hits for the game.
Alex DuBord, Riley Ulery and Brendan Skye combined to surrender only four hits in the win.
"DuBord was really sharp today. He just ran out of pitches," Murry said.
"They started taking them as soon as they got down a little bit, and that cost him quite a few pitches."
DuBord picked up the win, striking out five over in six innings of work.
"We ran him out of there after 96 pitches, and then used a couple bullpen guys that hadn't had much action," Murry said.
With the sweep, the Panthers (33-16 overall and 20-10 in the KJCCC) leaped over KCKCC (31-17 and 19-11) in the conference standings heading into Saturday's series finale.
"We just need to keep playing well and control what we can control,"
Murry said. "We obviously want to be in the top four, and this puts us at No. 3."
First pitch is slated for 1 pm at the KCKCC Baseball Complex on the Blue Devil campus.