| Panthers' regular season closes with final home stand |
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By Luther Dorr A rained-out home game with Mora last Saturday left the Princeton Panthers with home games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to end the regular season. Wins in all three of those games would tie the Panthers with Isanti at the top of the Eastern Minny League and give them a bye when league playoffs begin Saturday at Hinckley because they own the tiebreaker with the Redbirds. Princeton (20-7, 14-2 in league play) took care of business in the first game Monday night with a five-inning 21-0 win over Quamba at Solheim Veterans Field. That left games Tuesday with Mora (9-7) and Wednesday with Milaca (1-15). The Panthers won at Chisago Lakes on Tuesday of last week, 9-0, and then beat Hinckley (11-6) here Friday night, 12-1. If the Panthers finish first they will have a bye Saturday in league playoffs as the No. 2 seed plays No. 7, No. 3 plays No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5, all at Hinckley. If they finish second by losing either or both of their last two games, they’ll play the No. 7 seed at 1 p.m. Saturday in Hinckley.
Games continue on Sunday, with one team being knocked out of the playoffs, and the next two rounds are on July 28 and July 30, game times to be determined. Eric Deglman continued his mastery of opposing teams, throwing his third straight shutout and extending his consecutive scoreless inning string to 30. No one is sure if that is a Panther record but it’s for sure one of the best streaks ever. Deglman (3-0, ERA of 1.12), not normally a strikeout pitcher, recorded five of his last six outs by strikeout, including the side in the ninth despite two hits. “He’s been locating the ball well,” said catcher Jordan Neubauer. Deglman pitched out of jams in the fourth and fifth innings, leaving the bases loaded both times. Meanwhile, the Panthers pecked away at the Chisago Lakes starter and reliever, totaling 13 hits. Jake Maros hit a solo homer in the first and had three hits. Neubauer also had three hits and his double and an RBI double by Brian Dorr were the only other extra-base hits.
Five of the Panthers’ runs came on two-out hits. Joe Swanson (7-3, 3.98) lost his shutout on an unearned run with one out to go in the game and that ended a string of 27 scoreless innings by Panther pitchers. But the big story of the night was the hitting of Maros who had four hits, two of them homers, and drove in eight runs. He hit a three-run homer in the first for a 4-0 lead, singled in the third, singled in a run in the fifth and hit a grand-slam homer in the sixth to make it 12-0. The eight RBIs tied the team record set by Brian Dorr in the state tournament in 1999, a state tournament record that Dorr still holds with two others.
The Panthers scored five runs in the first inning on six hits, were shut down by Jerrod Brennan the next three innings, scored three in the fifth and then got four in the sixth on the Maros slam. The Panthers have sometimes struggled against the Cubs in late-season games but this wasn’t one of them. Thirteen men went to the plate in the nine-run first and the Panthers got four more in the third and eight more in the fourth. In a ho-hum game in which every starter but one had at least one hit, there were some notable performances. Deglman (4-0, 0.97) extended his shutout string to 35 innings and gave up only one hit, a second-inning single.
And Maros (.434, 7 HR, 41 RBIs) hit a grand-slam homer for the second straight game and extended his homer streak to three games. Comments (0)
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