Great Bend Post
Since moving to the No. 4 seed in the Class 5A regional standings, the Panther baseball team dropped three-straight games before taking down Salina South 4-0 Friday night in Salina. Great Bend opened the quad with a 9-1 loss to Junction City. The Panthers now sit at No. 7 in the regional at 11-7 overall with two games to play in the regular season. Five teams in the west have at least 12 wins.
Junction scored two in the first and three in the fourth, and led 7-0 before Great Bend plated its lone run of the game in the bottom of the sixth on an Owen Kaiser double that scored Carson Umphres.
Kaiser had two doubles in the loss, and Trenton Kern doubled. Umphres singled twice, and Tyler Stuhlsatz and Koehn Ribordy each singled for the seven Panther hits.
Stuhlsatz picked up the loss on the mound after allowing five earned runs on five hits. He struck out one in his four innings of work. Edwin Chavez pitched the final three innings, allowing four earned runs on three hits with two strikeouts and five walks.
Great Bend scored two runs in the second inning against South, then added insurance runs in the fourth and sixth innings before the game ended early.
Umphres was cruising into the seventh, allowing just four Cougar hits with four strikeouts with an out to go. Hunter Herrman recorded the final out.
The Panther offense scored the four runs on just six hits. Ribordy doubled, and Stuhlsatz, Kern, Chavez, Bradley Hopkins, and JJ Grove each singled.
Great Bend closes out the regular season next Wednesday at the Sports Complex with a double-dip against Manhattan.