The home opener for the Panthers proved to be a letdown. The Golden Elks defeated the Panthers 8-2 on Tuesday, March 21. Elkton took advantage of the oppositions inexperience. The Elks received four runs from wild pitches and found the plate twice as many times as Perryville. Elkton's head coach Steve Smith said that he could not be happier with how his team performed. "Timely hitting, making the plays in the field and pitching, (that) is what is going to win a lot of baseball games and that is what we hope to do. That is our goal this year," said Smith. Freshman Austin Oliver pitched five strikeouts in the first four innings for the Elks, allowing the Panthers to score only two runs in the bottom of the third, one from Mike Newsome and the other by Matt O'Neil. The Panthers head coach Jason Gunning said that his team had too many strikeouts and that this game was a learning experience for them. "Its only the first game," he said. "It's a big stage to come out to a county game and ask (Oliver) to start the opener against a team that is up and coming like Perryville. I thought he did an awesome job. He was unflappable and he gave us what we needed today," said Smith. Andrew Simpson pitched the final three innings to prevent the Panthers from scoring any additional runs to close out the game. "Simpson came in and shut the door and I couldn't be more proud of either one of them," Smith added. Comments are closed.
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