PANTHER BASEBALL SEASON ENDS
The Burton Panther baseball season came to a heart-breaking end as they fell twice to Thorndale, Friday night, 5-4 and 8-3.
The Panthers (23-6) had beaten the Bulldogs, 10-0 Thursday night, and had to win one of the two games Friday at Nutrabolt Stadium to advance to the third round against defending State Champ, Big Sandy.
It looked good for the Panthers in the opener, as they built a 3-1 lead going into the fifth inning, on first inning rbi singles by Tristan Brantley and Dee Winters and a solo homerun from Aaron Kohring.
But Thordale rallied for three runs in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead, but the Panthers countered with a tying run in the sixth on Cash Callahan’s rbi-double.
The Panthers had opportunities to take the lead, but left numerous runners in scoring position in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
The Bulldogs took the win in the bottom of the 8th on a one-out squeeze play.
Callahan took the loss in relief of starter Jackson Kalkhake.
Thorndale jumped out to a 2-0 lead after two innings, off Panther game-three starter Cade Weiss, who settled down and three consecutive scoreless innings.
Burton cut the lead to 2-1 on a sacrifice fly by Kalkhake that scored Brantley, who had doubled. After the Bulldogs upped their lead to 3-1, the Panthers tied it at 3-3 on triples from Callahan and Kohring, followed by an rbi-single by Kalkhake.
But in the 7th, the wheels came off for the Panthers as Thorndale put five runs on the board on just one hit, three walks and three errors.
Brantley took the loss in relief of Weiss. Kalkhake finished up the game.
The Bulldogs move on to the Region IV/2A quarterfinals against defending State Champion, Big Sandy, who defeated Shiner, 8-3.