Box Score LaGrange held Senior Day for 14 seniors Saturday but Huntingdon spoiled the day with a 4-3 win in Williamson Stadium at Cleaveland Field. It was the second straight one run win for the Hawks (30-9) over the Panthers (22-23).
Before the game, Jon Brock, Brandon Espinosa, James Hall, Anthony Iannetta, Henry Jacobs, Brent Kinsey, Miles Lee, Cody Muren, Lindwood Roberds, Doug Scherer, Josh Shiver, Kenneth Strack, Robby Williams and Drew Williamson were recognized. This is the largest senior class under head coach Kevin Howard. The group won a Great South Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championship along with being on the first LaGrange team to play in a NCAA regional.
Scherer (7-3) pitched the first seven innings. He gave up the four runs, scattered nine hits, walked three and struck out four. Jacobs pitched two scoreless innings, allowing only one hit, to close out the game.
The Hawks got two quick runs off Scherer in the first inning. But Scherer struck out two of the last three batters in the inning to leave the bases loaded.
The Panthers got a run back in the second inning. Muren led off with a base hit up the middle and took third on Lee's hustling double to right. Two batters later, Muren scored as Espinosa reached on an infield hit to make it 2-1.
The Hawks added two more runs in the third inning to go up 4-1. After the third, Scherer settled down, allowing only a hit and two batters to reach over his last four innings of work.
In the fifth, Shiver and Iannetta opened the inning with back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners. Kinsey followed with a sacrifice fly to straight away center to score Shiver to cut the Hawks' lead to 4-2.
The Panthers staged a ninth inning rally off Hawk closer Neil Lawler. Shiver led off the inning with a double to right center and promptly stole third for 30th stolen base of the season, the fourth most by a Panther.
One out later, Kinsey singled to center to score Shiver to make it a one run game. Brock followed with a single to right to put runners on the corners and later stole second. But Lawler closed out the game by getting Muren to pop out, then striking out Lee for the final out.
The Panthers had 13 hits in the game. Brock, Kinsey, Lee, Muren and Shiver all had two hits. Kinsey had the two RBIs.