Knoxville 3 Grinnell 7

Friday June 5, 2009

by Don French

As they did in Game 1 of the twinbill, the Panthers jumped to an early lead over visiting Grinnell. But then the Knoxville bats quieted, and defensive miscues burned Knoxville as the Tigers bounced back for a 7-3 win to claim the split.

Danny Lee and Eric Jones led off the game with back-to-back doubles and Blake McWilliams lifted an RBI sacrifice fly to stake the Panthers to a quick 3-0 lead. But that would be the end of Knoxville's scoring for the evening.

The Panthers still maintained a 3-1 lead after three innings, but a nightmarish fourth frame saw the home team commit four errors which enabled Grinnell to score three times despite only one hit. The inning gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead which they never relinquished.

Kellen Glover pitched a solid outing, allowing three hits over four innings of work, but the righty was a casualty of the defensive mistakes and took the loss. Jones came on and allowed three runs and five hits in a three-inning relief stint.

The Panthers ended the evening with a 1-2 mark in LHC play and are now 4-7 overall. Knoxville travels to South Tama to  face the Trojans in JV/Varsity action on Monday before returning home on Tuesday to host Chariton.