The Monday, Apr. 20 game between Salisbury and Schuyler County certainly lived up to its billing as a pair of top ten-ranked schools squared off at Salisbury, with the hometown Panthers squeezing their way past their Lewis and Clark Conference rivals 1-0 in a contest heard on KMMO-AM.
The two sides traded zeroes until the bottom of the sixth when the Panthers’ Gavin Binder led off the frame with a single before stealing second and then scoring on a base knock by Austin Cravens. Salisbury missed out on a chance to tack on more runs during that stanza, but it turned out one was all they would need, emerging victorious in a matchup of shutdown pitchers.
Cravens provided the winning side with nearly all of their offense as besides his game-winning single in the sixth, he also had a base knock during the first, giving the Panthers both of their hits on Monday. In addition, Cravens was the contest’s winning pitcher, throwing six innings while surrendering no runs on three hits and fanning 12 besides walking three. Salisbury’s pitchers had a total of 15 Ks in the game as senior reliever Christopher Howser earned the save with a perfect seventh, striking out all three men he faced.
The tough-luck loser for the visiting Rams was Gage Brownell who fired six solid innings, giving up one run on two hits as he struck out 13 and walked only two. Until they finally scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth, the Panthers never had more than one base runner during a given frame.
Meanwhile, Schuyler County’s offense missed out on three good opportunities to score. The Rams came up empty after having runners at second and third and two out in the third, as well as having the sacks jammed and one away in the fourth and later, a runner at second with one out during the sixth. Schuyler County had no runs on three hits while making one error and stranding seven. The Rams dropped to 2-1 in Lewis and Clark Conference play and 11-3 overall, coming into the day ranked 10th in Class 2 baseball.
Salisbury had one run on two hits as they also committed one miscue and left four runners on with the game taking but an hour and 31 minutes to play. Now 4-0 in the league and 10-2 on the year, the Panthers did nothing to hurt the number-seven ranking they were enjoying going into Monday’s action.
The KMMO microphones will have another riveting contest Tuesday afternoon from Concordia, when St Paul Lutheran host their crosstown rivals in an I-70 Conference contest. Pregame is around 4:15 p.m. on KMMO AM 1300 and online at kmmo.com, with first pitch around 4:30 p.m.