Demons, Panthers split doubleheader

WASHINGTON - A home field often provides a team an advantage in a game.

Thursday it provided an athlete an advantage when Mt. Pleasant played Washington in a Southeast Conference baseball doubleheader.

Nik Coble goes to school at WACO, which has a sharing agreement with Mt. Pleasant for baseball.

While Coble took the loss as a pitcher in the 2-0 Washington win in the opener, he twice had hits that scored three runs each in the 14-3 nightcap win.

The first of those hits was a three-run blast during the seven-run second inning that turned a 3-0 deficit into an eventual runaway win. To cap it off, Coble added a bases-clearing double in the seventh inning.

'(The pitcher) put it where I liked it and I guess I did the rest,” Coble said of his blast that cleared the fence in center field. 'I thought it was going to bounce so I was running pretty hard but I saw it go over and it gave me a big smile on my face. This was kind of a home game for us guys from WACO since it's just a couple miles from Wayland. I knew some people here tonight that don't typically come so I was excited I could help out the team first, but with everybody here and for them to see it, it was pretty neat.”

The win helped the Panthers forget about the first game when Washington sophomore Lucas Kroll shut the Panthers down. Kroll didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning, only gave up one more while striking out five and walking one in the shutout. Brady Knutson pitched the final two innings for the save.

'It is good to play in those 2-0 games because it was neck and neck all the way and when you get to the postseason, that's the kind of game you will see,” MP coach Brent Broeker said. 'The kids they pitched in the first game had more velocity than we have seen.”

Trevor Quigley's RBI scored Wilx Witthoft in the first inning of the opener for all the runs Washington would need. Knutson added an RBI in the fifth. 'Not scoring any runs in a game hits harder than regular loss,” Coble said.

He gave up two hits but five walks and struck out six in 5 2/3 innings pitched to take the loss in the opener.

Quigley and Reece Mayer hit consecutive doubles in the first inning of the second game for the 3-0 lead.

MP pitcher Jaxon Hoyle gave up just two hits, a walk and struck out six after that until being relieved in the sixth inning with two out.

'We struggled that first game hitting, so we knew we had to make some changes in the second game,” Coble said. 'I thought we were more aggressive and attacked the ball. That helped us make better contact.”

The second game turned in the top of the second inning with a walk, three errors, a double, a strikeout, a sacrifice bunt, a hit batter, another walk, then Coble's dinger.

'We had good energy going to start the second game after winning the first one and getting three runs in the first inning,” WHS coach Nathan Miller said. 'We had a wheel play set up and when the ball was bunted we were in great position, but an errant throw happens and then we had a great throw that we couldn't make the catch and tag on and the wheels fell off after that.”

'In the first game, we were hitting everything in the air,” Broeker said. 'We had nine pop ups. When you give a team nine easy outs, it's hard to score runs. The second game we did a much better job putting the ball on the ground and making them make plays. Which they didn't do very well. They gave us a few runs and that gave us some confidence and we started hitting the ball harder.”

'We only gave up six hits in the second game but there was a lot of things we need to work on,” Miller said. 'Honestly I think the guys lost their focus and that's what I talked to them about. We were put in some situations that our guys were not ready for. Those are fixable and it's good to have something like that happen to us early in the season, so we have time to work on it. We are going to make some corrections in practice. The only bad loss is a loss you don't learn anything from.”