Knoxville 11  Pella 0

Wednesday June 18, 2008

by Don French

The Panthers won their fourth straight game in the nightcap of Wednesday's double-header with Pella, dispatching the Little Dutch 11-0 in five innings. Knoxville's current winning streak is their longest of the season, and has improved the Panthers to 10-12 overall and 8-4 in Little Hawkeye Conference play.

The Panthers sprayed around five hits and were aided by three Pella errors to stake themselves to a 5-0 lead after two innings. Danny Lee bunted for a base hit and scored in the first, then drove in Zach Lenger on a suicide squeeze in the second inning. Josh Russell had a first-inning RBI double and later scored on a Dutch error. Ben Myers also provided an RBI with a single to left.

The home team erupted in the third inning, sending ten hitters to the plate and scoring five times for a 10-0 bulge. Tyler Worrall highlighted the inning with his first varsity home run, a two-run towering blast over the right-field fence.

Kirk Keffer and Eric Jones combined to shut out the Dutch on four hits. Keffer took the win with four innings of work while Jones closed out the contest by hurling a scoreless fifth.

Russell, Jesse Swanson and Mike Jacks each had two hits for Knoxville, and Lee, Worrall and Lenger each drove in two runs.

Knoxville is now off until Friday, when the Panthers host Oskaloosa in a JV/Varsity game.