Knoxville 8 Grinnell 0

Friday June 26, 2009

by Don French

Eric Jones pitched a four-hit complete game shutout, the Knoxville defense committed just one error and the Panther offense came alive late Friday evening in Grinnell. The result was a convincing 8-0 win for the visiting Panthers over the Tigers, who came into the game as the third-place team in the Little Hawkeye Conference.

Knoxville got all the runs it would need in the top of the first on one swing, when Blake McWilliams crushed a two-run blast over the left-center field fence. But that was the Panthers' only hit through the first four innings as Jones and his defense clung to a 2-0 lead.

KHS used their baserunning skills to push across one run in the fifth. The Panthers pulled off a fine delayed double-steal, with Corey Collins stealing second as Tyler Worrall raced home from third base. Zach Stuart punched a single up the middle in the following inning to drive home Adam Thiel and McWilliams to give the good guys a 5-0 edge. Three hits combined with two Grinnell errors in the seventh provided three more Panther runs and the final margin.

Knoxville evened their LHC mark at 6-6 with the victory and is now 11-12 overall. The Panthers will look to push both marks over .500 on Monday when they host South Tama in a varsity twinbill. The Panthers laid a 17-0 crushing on the Trojans earlier this season.