The biggest opponent in Friday's home opener may have been the wind. After a pair of losses at Kapaun to open the season, the Panther baseball team made its home debut Friday with a pair of run-rule wins against Hutchinson. Great Bend took game one 13-3, then won the nightcap 16-6.
Eleven of the 13 Panther runs in game one came in the first three innings, including a 6-run third. Senior Tyler Stuhlsatz homered on the second pitch of the season. He stayed hot Friday with three hits in game one Friday, including a triple and double. He drove in two and scored four times. Daxton Minton singled twice and drove in four runs, JJ Grove and Carson Umphres singled and doubled, and Koehn Ribordy singled twice.
Umphres threw all five innings for the win, allowing three earned runs on 10 hits. He struck out three and walked a batter.
Hutchinson scored the first four runs of game two. The Panthers answered with four runs in the second inning, then went on to lead 7-5 with two runs in the fourth. But it was a 9-run sixth inning that ended things early.
Ian Premer and Hunter Herrman each tripled and singled. Umphres doubled and singled and drove in three runs. Grove and Bradley Hopkins each tripled for their lone hits. Hopkins also walked twice and came around to score three times. Stuhlsatz, Slade Mohr, and Edwin Chavez each had two hits.
Herrman picked up the win, throwing 3.1 innings of hitless ball to close out the Salthawks. He struck out five and walked two. Owen Kaiser allowed four earned runs on three hits while striking out five in nearly three innings of work as the starter.
The Panthers take a 2-2 record on the road to Liberal Friday, then return to the Great Bend Sports Complex against Hays on Tuesday, April 11.