Our First District Win

I am back with some amazing news for our Panther Baseball fans. Last night we had an intense game against our district rivals, the South Ridge Spartans. Nick Labrada was our starting pitcher for the game that night. He had some rough inning throughout the game but he managed to throw five innings. Labrada had to throw many pitches because he struggled with getting ahead in counts against the hitters. Also, our defense had a rough night as well with some errors in the infield and the outfield. Hector Vazquez then came in the game and pitched an amazing outing with two strikeouts. Unfortunately, Coach Smith made a mistake with player changes and led to Vazquez not closing the game. Therefore, Matt Turner came in with a four run lead and needed three outs to give the Panthers a district victory. Turners was shaky after walking the first two hitters, but he struck out three straight and had an outstanding performance.

 Our offense was blowing up that night, we had more then ten hits that game as a team. Our team batting average was over .350 after that game. Ryan Booth was the biggest offensive hitter of the night, he went 4-4 in the game and the team was very impressed. What led to our victory yesterday was our energy. The whole game every player was talking, cheering, and yelling their hearts out. I am positive that at least three players lost their voices last night from yelling so much every time we scored and executed the game correctly. Lets go Panthers! Lets get the next district win against the South Dade Bucaneers! Lets stay..
PANTHER STRONG

The Struggle

This week the Palmetto Panthers had to face off against the St. Brendan Sabers! The teams were both fired up from the beginning and the spectators were screaming from the top of their lungs! Unfortunately, the head coach for the Panthers, Danny Smith, was not there because he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Therefore, he could not be there for us and made everything feel a little off. Coach Jeff Steiner was still there for us; he gave us the energy and desire to play yesterday. Hector Vazquez pitched 4 innings with 1 unearned run and 5 strikeouts, which was very impressive. We did not execute hitting properly that game; we had many hits but we could never bring the runs home. The umpires were absolutely horrendous and they made terrible calls all-around. The calls were so bad that our Coach was thrown out of the game for arguing with the umpires, which also led to forfeiting the game. We sort of saw this coming because the umpire already hated palmetto for some reason and was unfair for us. The umpire had no right to call off the game. Our team really wanted to finish this game, but the calls would only get worse if we kept going anyways. The Sabers thought they had a great win, and that really heated up the Panthers. There was about to be an all-out brawl on the baseball field! The Panthers were calmed down by the coaches and some players and had a team meeting. After, the Panthers were thrilled and ready for the next game coming soon next week. 

PANTHER STRONG

Beginning of the Season

The season has started and we are doing decent so far. Our first game of the season was an easy win against Keys Gate Charter. We won the game 15-0. Our offense was outstanding the entire game, we scored at least two runs per inning. Our pitching and defense was amazing, Hector Vazquez had a shutout game with five strikeouts. The coaches were very proud of the entire team, but the team got cocky and let their guard down for their next game. Our next game was against Braddock High School. We lost 15-1 which is very ironic isn't it. Our pitching staff caused our defeat; it was not on point at all. Pitching was terrible; they were not hitting their spots that led to over 10 hits. Defense and offense was pretty well overall. I believe we can comeback from this loss and win next Saturday against Southwest High School. 

According to many team members, they believe that we are low on good pitching this season. They think Hector Vazquez might the only chance for the Panthers to go far this season. Hector Vazquez's response was, " I will use all my power and strength this year to make a statement and make it to June 9th", he seems pumped, but we will see if his words will come reality. 

PANTHER STRONG!

Pre-Season

The baseball season this year has begun and the teams are heating up. As of now we are in pre-season which really does not count, but is a good way to warm up for the real season. The Panthers did play their first pre-season game last Monday and turned out disappointing. We had lost 4-2 against the decent team of Keys Gate Senior High. We were fired up until the 4th inning and then everything went downhill from there. We as a team did not execute our offense and left too many runners on the bases. Pitching was pretty well, but offense was the main culprit of our lost. After the game we kept our heads up and moved forward. We got a game today against Sunset so we will see how it goes soon. I will be on the mound and I look forward to shutting them down. I am visualizing nobody scoring on me and a few strikeouts. I have confidence that our offense will be better today and that we can win this game with ease. This is the last pre-season game before the actual season so I hope our team can get it together today. If the team plays smart and with desire, then I have no doubt we can we today. Lets go Panthers! PANTHER STRONG.