Knoxville 8 Norwalk 9

Wednesday June 17, 2009

by Don French

The Norwalk Warriors entered Knoxville as the second-place team in the Little Hawkeye Conference Wednesday night. But Knoxville had the Warriors on the ropes for five innings before a late Norwalk rally was just enough to edge the Panthers by a score of 9-8.

The black and gold wasted little time in building an early lead, scoring three runs in the first inning for a 3-1 advantage. Mike Jacks' two-RBI double highlited the opening frame, followed by an RBI single from Lance Daugherty.

Norwalk scrapped back to take a 4-3 lead that disappeared when Blake McWilliams sent the first pitch of the bottom of the third inning over the left-field fence. Two more runs scored in the inning, the last when Jared McRoberts dribbled an RBI single up the middle to score Daugherty.

McWilliams added his second RBI of the night the next inning, when his sacrifice fly to deep right scored Corey Collins, who had just lined a triple through the left-field gap. Zach Lenger's RBI single gave Knoxville an 8-4 cushion through five innings.

Eric Jones had limited the Warriors to three hits over the first five inning, but got into a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. Kellen Glover allowed only one hit over almost two innings of relief, but that one hit was a three-run home run by Norwalk's star player, Matt Dermody. The homer gave Norwalk the 9-8 lead that the Warriors would never give up.

McWilliams, Daugherty, Lenger and Danny Lee all had two-hit nights for the Panthers, who fell despite an 11-hit effort.

Knoxville's season mark dropped under .500 in conference play. The Panthers are now 3-4 in conference and 7-9 overall. The Panthers next face LHC rival Pella in a varsity double-header on Friday night in Knoxville.