The Panthers’ baseball team took on their rivals, the Blake Bengals, on April 2nd.  The Panthers were the home team, but since their field wasn’t ready yet, they had to travel to Kelly Park in Gaithersburg to play the Bengals.

Senior captain Drew Jacobs was on the hill on Wednesday and threw a great game.  Over the first three innings, Jacobs gave up only two hits, while walking one batter.   In the bottom of the third, the Panthers put together a rally to take a commanding lead.  Junior Sam Stewart reached on an error to get the momentum rolling for the Panthers.  Sophomore Dewayne Thomas hit a bomb to right-center field for an RBI double.  Senior Gaston Cooper followed the trend and switched places with Thomas for his own RBI double.  At the end of the inning, the Panthers had a 5-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, the Panthers retired the side, as Jacobs had the Bengals three-up-three-down.  In the bottom of the inning, the Panthers added two more runs to take a 7-0 lead.

The Panthers found a little bit of trouble in the fifth as the Bengals loaded the bases with one out. Blake first baseman Sean Riggs came up to bat and hit a grounder to second that scored a run.  On the play, Panther second baseman Dylan Van Meers fielded the ball and tossed to Cooper, who was playing second, but Cooper could not convert the double play as he short-hopped the throw to first, allowing the Bengals to score a second run.

Jacobs also got it done with his bat.  In the bottom of the fifth, he hit a hard ground ball up the third baseline for a double and then stole a base before being driven in by JC Corkran to stake himself and the Panthers to an 8-2 lead.

Jacobs shut down the Bengals in the sixth inning as he picked up two K’s and fielded his position well to keep the Bengals at bay.  At the plate, the Panthers closed out the game with two more runs, which were supplied by a Corkran blast to center field for a long, two RBI single.  Those two runs invoked the “mercy rule” as the score jumped to 12-2, and the Panthers moved to 3-1 on the season.