The Panther baseball squad closed out the regular season on the road in Junction to face the Piute Thunderbirds. The two teams would play a doubleheader, and Piute would earn wins in both games, 25-1 and 17-7.
The Panthers close out the regular season with a 7-10 overall record and a 4-8 region record. They hold the No.9 spot in the latest rankings, but that could change as the season doesn’t end until October 1.
Piute jumped out in the first inning, scoring 12 runs. Pinnacle couldn’t find any answers for Piute as they added another four runs in the second and then nine more in the third to get the score to 25-0. In the top of the fourth, the Panthers scored their only run when Domonick Huitt sent one to right field to drive in Bryson Shumway, but the Thunderbirds closed out the Panthers 25-1 in four innings.
Shumway was 2-2 with a run scored for Pinnacle. Huitt was 1-2 with an RBI. Dominick Vigil and Joey Howell each went 1-2 in the loss.
Howell also got the start on the mound, going 2.2 innings, giving up 24 runs, 14 earned on 17 hits, while striking out five. Huitt closed out the game, giving up one earned run on one hit.
In the amount of time it took to freshen up the field, the two teams were back at it for game two. This time, Pinnacle found a few more runs, but Piute came away with the win in this one as well, 17-7.
Pinnacle got on the board first in this one, putting up runs in each of the first two innings to hold a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the second, where Piute would cut the lead in half at 2-1. AJ Jimenez came up in the top of the third with two outs and two on and sent a shot to center, driving in Huitt and Brody Howell to take a 4-1 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, the Thunderbirds would tie things up at 4-4 and then come out after holding the Panthers scoreless in the top of the fourth and taking the lead, adding seven runs in the bottom half of the inning. Pinnalce came up in the top of the fifth and put five more runs up as Joey Howell scored off of a Brody Howell double. Next batter up was Huitt, and he ripped a triple to center, driving in Shumway and Brody Howell to move the score to 11-7. Piute would close out the Panthers with six in the bottom of the fifth to take the 17-7 win.
Huitt led the way for the Panthers, going 2-3 with a run and two RBIs. Joey Howell and Brody Howell both went 1-2, scoring one run each. Brody Howell had one RBI. Jimenez was 1-1 with two RBIs, and Kyson Sayre was 1-2 in the loss.
Brody Howell got the start on the mound, going 3.2 innings, giving up 11 runs, 10 earned, on 11 hits, and striking out three. Shumway closed out the game, giving up six runs, two earned, on three hits, striking out one.
This concludes the regular season for the Pinnacle Panthers. The rest of the 1A season will conclude on October 1, and the following day, the final rankings will be released. On October 3, the playoffs will begin.
If the rankings stay the way they are, Pinnacle would make a trip to Eureka to take on the Tintic Miners on Friday, October 3.