The Neosho County baseball team played host to Butler Community College this afternoon for a non-conference matchup. The Panthers fell to the Grizzles 9-6 after several mistakes put them in a hole they could not crawl out of.
Tyler McQuinn started the game for the Panthers on the hill. McQuinn tossed 3.2 innings giving up 8 runs on only 4 hits. The big problem with the outing was the free passes. The right hander surrendered 6 free passes to the Grizzlies in his start. Jacob Beckmann tossed 3.1 innings in relief and gave up 1 run on 2 hits.
Brady Pacha also threw out of the pen logging 2.0 innings and throwing up 2 scoreless innings.The Panthers as a whole gave up 10 free passes on the day: 5 walks, 4 HBP, and 1 error by the defense.
Head Coach Steve Murry on the free passes, "This has been a scary recurring theme for our team. We compound mistakes in the same inning and those mistakes hurt us in a big way. Take today for example, a HBP, an error, and a HR all happened in succession. It is very hard to crawl our way out of those types of things. We are shooting ourself in the foot and letting teams put up crooked numbers in one inning".
Offensively, the Panthers were pretty stagnant today. They scored 6 runs on 7 hits in the loss. They did find a way to draw some walks (10) and cut down their strikeouts to just 8 in the game. However, they did leave 12 runners in scoring position over the course of the game. Daegan Brady and Khalil Thrasher put together a good game, as both notched 2 hits in the contest.
Head Coach Steve Murry on the offense in this game, "We are still struggling to cash in runners on base. This team is so close to scoring runs in bunches, however, we aren't there yet. Leaving 12 runners on base in a game really hurts, especially when you only lose by 3 runs. We are heading in the right direction offensively, it is just a little slower going than any of us coaches anticipated it would be".
The Panthers will be back in KJCCC play on Thursday, when they travel to Parsons, KS, to take on the Labette Community College Cardinals. First pitches of the doubleheader are slated for 1 & 3 PM.
