Panthers are Headed Back to Radford
STORY BY: MICHAEL MARZZACCO / POTOMAC FALLS HIGH SCHOOL
POTOMAC FALLS, VA - The Panthers were riding high after winning their second straight Regional Title. Now, they're trying to go back to Radford to take another shot at the State Championship. There was a standing room only crowd at Panther Park and the students were fired up.
Jackson Rogers pitched for the Panthers and had an impressive game. The game was close for the first couple of innings.
The Panthers were the first team to get on the scoreboard. In the bottom of the first inning, Ryan Miller hit a sacrifice fly to leftfield to score Thomas Rea.
In the top of the third, the Powhatan Indians started to come alive. The two-out rally started with a single by Tyler Allen to tie the game at 1. Then, Luke Scherzer hit a double to left-center to give Powhatan a 2-1 lead. With the bases loaded, Boonewell Hagy walked to score a run. Powhatan had a 3-1 advantage after the top of the third.
The Panthers responded with a nine-run third inning. This was highlighted by Ryan Mahoney's single (that scored Ben Sweger), Ryan Miller's double to right-field (that scored Rea) and Sam Bass's single to centerfield (that scored Miller). This made the score 5-3. After that, Matt Hoover hit a single to right-field and Ben Sweger singled to make it 7-3. Then, Rea hit a single to score two runs to give the Panthers a 9-3 lead. After that, Ryan Mahoney beat a throw to first to score Sweger. The Panthers now had a commanding 10-3 lead.
Powhatan scored two runs in the top of the fifth to cut the lead in half, 10-5. Then in the bottom of the sixth, Colin Deely singled to left-center to score Michael Lascomb that gave the Panthers an 11-5 advantage. Powhatan scored one run in the top of the seventh, but it wasn't enough.
The Panthers won 11-6! Jackson Rogers pitched a complete game for the Panthers and had four strikeouts.
Assistant/Pitching Coach Traelic Cotter was proud of Jackson's performance and said, "Jackson got stronger as the game went on. He had a quick first inning and then ran into a little bit of trouble. But, like Jackson usually does, he gets back on track and picks up the defense. Overall, he gave a solid pitching performance. He kept them off-balance today, and got us out of a lot of tough spots."
Last year, the Panthers made it to the State Semifinals as well. On the difference between this year's team and last year's team heading into the State Final Four, Head Coach Joe Terango said, "We're a little deeper in our lineup as far as hitting goes. Last year, we had some holes here and there. This year, we're solid one through nine (batting order). These kids have been there before. They play relaxed and play to win."
Ryan Miller added, "We're younger. Last year, we were much more experienced. We had seven seniors. We can play, we're used to big games, and we can hit the ball, too. We know it's going to be tough. We have to play our best."
The Panthers move on to the State Semifinals. They will play Jefferson Forest on Friday, June 11 at 10 a.m. at Calfee Park in Pulaski. Go Panthers!
