Panthers shut down Sigourney to win 4-2, advance to round two

PACKWOOD ? Survive and advance is now the creed of the Pekin baseball team and Saturday they did just that.

In the Class 2A district opener, The Panthers rallied from an early 2-0 deficit with a three-run second inning to escape with a 4-2 win over Sigourney ? a team that they beat 17-7 just a few weeks ago. Sigourney lead off hitter Matt Meier recorded the Cobra?s lone hit in the first at bat of the game. Meier?s bloop to right field put him on base where he later came around to score by way of a Cody Millikin throwing error. Sigourney scored another earned run moments later to take a 2-0 lead.

?Those are the mistakes you can?t make in the tournament,? said head coach Jeff Eeling. ?We hadn?t had a chance to bat yet though and I knew we were going to have to score to win either way. At that point, I was still confident we were going to be able to hit.?

In the second inning, the Pekin offense woke up ? particularly the bottom half of the order. Kyle Paul?s single got things started before three straight walks cut the deficit in half and set up No. 9 hitter Brady Lamb?s RBI single to center field. Trenton Northup followed up with another bases loaded hit to put the Panthers on top for good 3-2. Northup then scored an insurance run for the Panthers in the fifth.

While Meier recorded the only Sigourney hit of the night, Pekin starter Cody Millikin surrendered seven walks. Millikin was credited with the win with an ?effectively wild? game according to Eeling ? effectively wild to the tune of 10 strikeouts.

?Cody wasn?t real sharp, but when he did throw it in there it may have been a little bit of a surprise,? Eeling said. ?There were 10 strikeouts, but the seven walks was too many.?

Sigourney put two more runners on base in a final rally attempt in the bottom of the seventh inning before Eeling called upon Dalton Stone for the final two outs. Stone, just two days removed from a seven-inning outing Thursday, entered to face Sigourney?s top two hitters Andrew Utterback and Kory Schwenke. Utterback has hit 10 home runs on the year, but Stone forced two groundouts to end the game and move Pekin to round two.

In the second round, Pekin will take on a 21-4 Van Buren team that also won Saturday with a big 3-0 victory against ninth-ranked Davis County.

?Van Buren is a good team, well coached and fundamentally sound. We have to be patient at the plate and really take advantage of their mistakes because there probably won?t be very many,? said Eeling. ?It?s an exciting time of the year knowing that you?re still playing and half of the other teams in the state aren?t. Van Buren has some postseason experience, but if we believe in ourselves and we can come out with a win.?

Stone is set to get the start in Tuesday?s game scheduled for 7 p.m. in Packwood.