Panthers get blitzed in rough weekend

PACKWOOD ? Two games against Class 1A fourth-ranked IMS and its home tournament has given the Pekin baseball team a weekend to forget.

The Panthers concluded a rained out doubleheader from last week with two losses and returned on Saturday for two more losses ? one each to Van Buren and Moravia ? in their home tournament.

?IMS is a good team and they?re ranked for a reason,? said Pekin head coach Jeff Eeling. ?In the second game, we were up 3-2 heading into the fifth inning and they just had a swagger about them that they were going to take care of business.?

Following a 19-2 victory in the opener, IMS used a six-run fifth inning before adding two more in the sixth to come away with an 11-4 win in game two. Cody Millikin and Trenton Northup homered in the game while Zach Mosbey was 1-3 with another RBI and a stolen base.

In the Panthers? opening game against Van Buren on Saturday, the Warriors scored all four of their runs off Northup in the fourth inning to come away with a 4-2 victory. Chris Wilson had two of the RBIs in the game. Denium Reynolds recorded two hits while Mosbey and Kyle Paul each had on apiece for a Panther offense that struggled to get things going.

The 2-1 nine-inning loss to Moravia to cap the day was more of the same for Pekin as they recorded just three hits and didn?t score in eight straight innings before Moravia ended the game in the ninth.

?We competed hard in those two games against IMS and we may have been a little tired on Saturday,? Eeling said. ?Still, we hit the Moravia pitcher pretty well, but it just happened to be right at them. Just a good nine-inning ball game and Chase Chapman threw well to keep us in the game. To their credit, they made just one error and the game?s first hit and that?s how we scored our run.?

Chapman went the distance for Pekin giving up just five hits in 8 1/3 innings of work, but suffered the loss after Moravia?s game-ending run in the ninth inning.

New London ended up winning the tournament championship with a win over Van Buren in the finals. Aguirre drove in the only two runs for the Warriors in the 5-2 loss.

With a day of rest on Sunday, the Panthers are now set for a doubleheader at Winfield-Mount Union tonight and Van Buren will host Central Lee in another conference match up.