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Washington Evening Journal
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MP baseball drops 2 wild ones
Panthers fall short in slugfest against Burlington, walked off in Atlantic
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MT. PLEASANT — The Mt. Pleasant baseball team scored 14 runs over a two-game stretch this weekend, but the Panthers didn’t secure any wins.
Mt. Pleasant fell 12-8 against Burlington in Southeast Conference play on Thursday night. Then, after a lengthy road trip, the Panthers fell 7-6 on a walk-off in Atlantic on Friday night.
On Thursday night, the Panthers were looking to hand Burlington its first SEC loss of the year, and offensively, they looked ready to do so.
Burlington scored five runs in its first at-bat, and eight total in its first three, but Mt. Pleasant gave the Grahyounds a taste of their own medicine on the other end, scoring three in the first, three in the second and two in the third to tie things at 8-8 after three innings.
From that point on, the only four runs of the game came from Burlington in the fifth inning. The Grayhounds took advantage of some two-out magic to pull away with the lead, and Mt. Pleasant could never get it back.
“I thought we did a great job early on, but the second arm they brought in had a nice little curve ball,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Brent Broeker. “We just struggled with it.”
Burlington left-hander Austin Donahue came in to relieve starter Cohen Schroeder in the third inning, and never gave up a run himself, through five innings of work.
Payton Walker, who started the game and went five innings on the mound, went 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBIs in the loss. Graydon Lowery was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs. Griffen Jones was 2-for-4 with a double, and both J.C. Sitar and Cooper Coleman knocked in one run.
The Panthers held a 6-4 lead heading into Atlantic’s final at-bat on Friday night. The Trojans rallied for three in the bottom of the seventh to stun the Panthers late in the night.
Mt. Pleasant had just five hits in Atlantic. Griffen Jones was 1-for-3 with the team’s only double. Grayson Lowery had a hit and two RBIs, and both Sitar and Walker knocked in one.
Liam Marshall nearly finished off a complete-game win. He started the game and was still in the game after six, giving up the walk-off with two outs in the final inning.
Mt. Pleasant dropped to 7-7 overall and 3-3 in SEC play after the weekend.
