Panthers' late burst stops FR (05/05/07)

FORT RECOVERY - For five innings, the Indians stood toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the league. But with runners on base in all but one frame, the Parkway Panthers finally broke through.

The second-place team in the Midwest Athletic Conference got an infield single and an error to start the sixth inning and then went bunt crazy. Parkway scored three times in the frame and posted five more runs in the seventh to turn a once-close game into a 9-1 victory over Fort Recovery.

"We played a good game for the first five innings, but we still couldn't get a big hit," said Tribe coach Aaron Vaughn, whose team got its only run on a Troy Metzger homer. "It's hard to win games 1-0. ... Hopefully it just gets us ready for tomorrow, gets us ready for the tournament.

"I thought it was a great time to play them because they are 7-1 in the MAC. They're right there behind Minster. They're a really good team and I thought we battled."

Fort Recovery starter Clint Tobe gave up a home run to Derek Snyder on the first pitch of the game, but settled in to retire the next eight batters in a row. He held the Panthers (13-8, 7-1 MAC) scoreless in the second through fifth, and Metzger's two-out blast to left-center field in the fourth tied the game.

But Jensen Painter opened the sixth with an infield single, and the festival of bunts followed.

Jordan Thompson put one down in an attempt to advance Painter to second, but the throw from Tribe third baseman Tony Diller bounced off of Kevin Schoenherr's glove. That allowed Thompson to reach first base safely, and Painter to move all the way to third.

Trevor Krogman then surprised the Tribe with a squeeze bunt for a single - a feat he would accomplish again in the seventh inning - to bring home Painter. Drew Luginbill popped up his bunt try to catcher Bobby Rammel for the first out of the inning, but Levon Archer followed with a sacrifice bunt to put Krogman and Thompson on second and third respectively.

No. 8 hitter Michael Baldouf took advantage by ending the streak of four straight bunts with a two-run double to center field for a 4-1 Panther lead.

"We got somebody on, and in a close ball game we're going to move them up to second. We laid down some pretty good bunts," said Parkway coach Eric Stachler. "We got a squeeze down, caught them off guard on the first pitch. It took us a little bit to get going, but once we got going everybody stepped up and did their job. ... I can't say enough about the way these guys responded tonight."

The Panthers got more of the same in the seventh inning with a one-out bunt single by Jeremy Heiser followed by an error and a hit batsmen. Krogman's second successful squeeze bunt score Heiser, and Archer and Baldouf delivered back-to-back two-RBI hits for the final margin.

"They had a couple of bunts there and played small ball on us and that was a great job by them because they weren't really getting a lot of good swings off (Tobe). That's the way good teams beat you sometimes," said Vaughn. "We threw a couple balls away and they got a couple runs and then they rolled a little bit from there."

The Tribe committed four errors in the game, and all eight runs in the final two innings were unearned.

While the Parkway No. 1 through 4 hitters managed to get just one ball out of the infield - Snyder's leadoff home run - Baldouf picked up the slack at the bottom of the order. He drove in four runs from the No. 8 hole, and Archer, the No. 7 hitter, added a pair of RBIs.

Krogman got both of his hits and RBIs on the bunts, and also scored twice. Painter and Thompson added two runs apiece.

Archer earned the win for the Panthers, allowing the one run on five hits. He struck out five and did not walk a batter.

Tobe took the loss despite also allowing just a single earned run on five hits. He struck out five and walked only one.

Following Troy Metzger for the Tribe were Curt Heitkamp with a double and Scott Hein and Kevin Schoenherr each with a single.[[In-content Ad]]