Sports

Benicia Panther Baseball One Win From Championship Game

Panthers come back from 2-0 deficit to beat Rio Americano in first game of best of three match-up.

The Panther baseball team continued its strong postseason run on Saturday, May 21 with a 6-2 victory over Rio Americano at the Dan McAuliffe Memorial Ballpark in Sacramento.

A controversy over the legality of the Benicia bats had head coach fuming before the first pitch was thrown.  The umpires, who are charged with approving the bats before the beginning of each game, didn't want to allow two of the Benicia bats because they didn't have serial numbers. 

League officials were called in and verified that the bats were legal but it seemed the mental damage had been done to the Panthers who got off to a sluggish start and had trouble shaking off early trouble at the plate.

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Rio Americano was the first to score with a run in the bottom half of the third inning.   With two out and two men on  Kazanjian hit a double scoring a man from second.  On the same play the other Rio Americano runner was cut down at the plate after a strong throw from left fielder to cut-off manwho made a perfect relay throw to catcher who made the tag to end the inning.

Rio Americano scored again in the bottom of the fifth inning after a single, a wild pitch and another single, but that was all the scoring the Raiders would do on Saturday.

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The Panthers started to turn things around at the plate in the fifth inning when Mauch got a lead-off double, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on RBI ground-out by Payne.

The Panthers put up two more in the sixth inning.  Starting pitcher led off the inning with a single.  All league selection, sophomore second baseman then hit a double over the center fielder's head scoring Reyes.

Calhoun moved to third on a long sacrifice fly by third baseman bringing Andrew McNeece to the plate.  McNeece laid down a perfect bunt and scored Calhoun on a suicide squeeze. 

That was all the runs the Panthers needed though they added 3 insurance runs in the top half of the seventh inning.  In the bottom half of the final frame the Raiders started to threaten.  They had the bases loaded with two out when sophomore got the call in the bullpen.  It took Bohnet five pitches to get the final out and his first playoff save.

"This is one of my all time favorite performances," Bowles told his team after the game.  "Once you guys calmed down and settled down - that's when you started playing baseball."

Asked about the squeeze play that scored Calhoun, Bowles said he didn't call it and that in all his years of coaching baseball he's never called the squeeze. 

"Jared Pickett (third base coach) called the suicide squeeze," said Bowles.  "It's good to have strong assistant coaches who understand the game and can take advantage when they see something.  It also helps to have a really smart player like McNeece at the plate when you call a play like that."

The Panthers play Rio Americano again today, Tuesday, May 24 at 4 p.m. at Dan McAuliffe Memorial Ballpark.  They are in the double elimination portion of the tournament so they have a possible double-header but are hopeful they can put the Raiders away in the first game.


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