Great Bend Post Sports
Things were a little more dramatic for the Panther baseball team during Saturday's home opener against Pratt at the Sports Complex. After scoring 13 runs in the first inning of the season, Great Bend scraped across a single run in the fifth inning of game one to beat the Greenbacks 1-0. The Panthers took game two 10-6 to move to 3-0 on the season.
Junior Carson Umphres threw all seven inning in the pitcher's duel, striking out six and allowing just four hits.
Owen Kaiser singled to lead off the fifth inning. Koehn Ribordy followed with a double to left, scoring Eli Soupiset running in place of Kaiser. Ribordy was thrown out at third base to leave the sacks empty ahead of a single from Slade Mohr. A strikeout and groundout ended the inning.
Umphres struck out two of the four batters in the sixth inning, then struck out the first batter in the seventh. Umphres hit a batter to put the tying runner on base with two outs but a fielder's choice ended the game.
Ribordy's double was the lone extra-base hit for the Panthers in the win. Kaiser, Mohr, and Carson Poe each singled.
The Panthers scored in each of the first five innings of game two to build a 10-3 lead. Pratt plated two runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh for the 10-6 final.
Kaiser threw four innings for the win, striking out three and allowing two earned runs on one hit. Ribordy pitched the final three innings, striking out two and allowing four earned runs on four hits.
Ian Premer tripled, walked, and drove in a run. JJ Grove doubled, singled, and walked. Mohr singled twice and drive in two, and Kaiser, Umphres, Ribordy, Daxton Minton, Trenton Kern, and Peyden Oelger each singled.
Great Bend travels to Hutchinson for a doubleheader on Thursday.