Panther softball swept by Grayhounds

MT. PLEASANT - The Mt. Pleasant softball team had more trouble generating runs in Monday night's doubleheader against Burlington. The Panthers dropped Game 1, 13-2, and fell in a much tighter Game 2, losing 5-2.

Game 1 was all Grayhounds from the first pitch. Burlington put up six runs in the first inning to take control early. Mt. Pleasant scored one in the bottom of the second on an RBI double single by Savana Walls, but Burlington put up the next seven runs, two in the fourth and five in the sixth to take a 13-1 lead.

Mt. Pleasant needed a three-run bottom of the sixth to avoid a 10-run rule, but the Panthers could only muster one. Grace Kelley knocked in the second Panther run of the game on a sacrifice bunt.

Sydni Coleman took the loss in Game 1 in the circle.

Hannah Newman stepped in to pitch in Game 2 for Mt. Pleasant, and she was joined by some defensive subs in the outfield. The Grayhounds had a much slower start, scoring just one run in the first two innings.

'Hannah throws a little slower, and when she is throwing strikes, sometimes that's tough to hit,” said Panther head coach Troy Mears. 'Our new girls that got in there, Maddie Moore in left and Ashlee Oilar in right, read the ball real well. We made some good plays, and if we had any errors, they didn't hurt us.”

The Grayhounds found their offense in the third inning and put up three runs to stretch the lead to 4-0. Mt. Pleasant cut that lead in half in the bottom of the inning on a two-out rally when Newman and Samantha Broeker both scored on an RBI single by Walls.

The game was 4-2 until the top of the seventh, when Burlington added one insurance run. The Panthers had one on and one out in the bottom half of the seventh after Kylee Roen walked, but they couldn't push anymore runs forward.

After the games were done, Coach Mears called it a moral victory for his team. He says with such a young squad, he's just glad to see them get more at-bats.

'All we can ask for is that they get up there at the plate and get their swings,” Mears said. 'They're just so young, and we just don't want them to be scared. We want them to be confident, get up there and get their cracks at it.”

The Panthers are now 2-9 on the season and 1-5 in Southeast Conference play. They've lost their last six games, and will try and turn it around on Thursday night when they hit the road to play Ft. Madison in another SEC doubleheader.