Mt. Pleasant baseball goes 0-2 on Saturday

WILLIAMSBURG — The Mt. Pleasant baseball team continued to struggle on Saturday in a tournament at Williamsburg. The Panthers fell 9-6 to the hosting Raiders before losing 13-0 in six innings against Central DeWitt.

The Panthers had a tough start against Williamsburg. The Raiders scored two runs in the first inning and five in the second off starting pitcher Payton Hagans to take a 7-0 lead.

Freshman relief pitcher Payton Hagans helped the Panthers settle down in the middle innings. He pitched the final five defensive innings of the game for Mt. Pleasant and held Williamsburg to just two more runs.

Mt. Pleasant cut the deficit to 7-4 by the fourth inning, but the Panthers wouldn’t get any closer than three runs.

Hagans gave up four runs (one earned) and struck out six batters in his five innings on the mound. Cooper Keldgord started the game and took the loss.

Trevor Wellington went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs in the loss. Carter Amos was 2-for-3 with a triple and an RBI, and Keldgord went 1-for-2 with an RBI.

Mt. Pleasant couldn’t get much done in the second game of the tournament. Hagans and Dalton Gardner each had a hit, but the Panthers couldn’t get anything going offensively.

The Panthers used five pitchers in the second game of the day. Chase Williamson took the loss, giving up two earned runs over 2 1/3 innings.