The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Panther Baseball Starts Season With Two Wins

By

by Ben Gaines
The sugar houses are shutting down and the peepers are out so it must be baseball season for the Panthers. Coach Mike Lilac Jr. and the Pride loaded the bus to travel to Castleton to face Maple Hill for the Panthers’ Season Opener, in a non-league game. The Panthers clawed their way to the Section II Finals last season and are looking to go further this season.
Leadoff batter and first baseman for the Panthers, senior, #6, Cody Gaines (Maverick) knew the job of leadoff is to get on base and he ended the season opener with a 100% on base average. Senior, # 22, Josh Brogue (Brogie) was on the mound for the Panthers while senior, # 12, Logan Brogue was catching. Josh settled right in and finished with 11 strikeouts and only allowed 2 runs. Only two of Hill’s players finished the game without a strikeout.
When asked about the game Cody replied, “Josh’s pitching was great…they hated his curve ball.”  When asked about his hitting he said, “That has to be a record amount of time standing on first base in one game… they changed pitchers 3 of the 4 times after I was up.”

Tyler Rondeau, second baseman for Falls, fields a hard hit grounder and gets the out at second, but the Umpire misses an interference call on the play to first...the Hoosic Valley player pops up and hits Tyler during the throw to first. The Panthers won the game 5 - 3. Billy Pine pitched and had 14 strike outs. This is win #2 for the Panther Pride. The JV lost to Valley 4-5 in the tenth inning. Photo by Callie Gaines.
Tyler Rondeau, second baseman for Falls, fields a hard hit grounder and gets the out at second, but the Umpire misses an interference call on the play to first…the Hoosic Valley player pops up and hits Tyler during the throw to first. The Panthers won the game 5 – 3. Billy Pine pitched and had 14 strike outs. This is win #2 for the Panther Pride. The JV lost to Valley 4-5 in the tenth inning. Photo by Callie Gaines.

Among the scorers for the Panthers were Cody Gaines (3), Josh Brogue, senior, #1 John Curtis Whitman (JC) and Junior #2, Tommy Peabody. The Panthers put one in the win column with the 7 to 2 victory at Maple Hill.
The varsity plays at Greenwich on the 11th, Granville on the 15th, MAU on the 16th and at Cambridge on the 17th. The JV plays at the same times on the same day on the opposite field of the varsity.