Panthers’ season comes to end in district finals

The Mountain Grove Panthers’ baseball team gave the No. 1 team in Class 4, Logan-Rogersville, everything they had in the District 10 tournament played on the Wildcats’ home diamond.

Unfortunately, the Panthers’ season came to an end as district runner-up after a 4-2 loss in the finals.

They lost by just two runs to the Wildcats back on April 24 as well.

Logan-Rogersville led 4-2 through five innings before the Panthers scored two runs in the top half of the sixth to cut into the lead.

In their final at-bat, Gabe Linton put the game-tying run on the bases after a two-out single.

A strikeout though ended the game and the season for Mountain Grove, who finished with a 12-13 overall record.

Both Gatlin Keeling and Brylon Mayberry scored the lone runs in the loss.

On the mound, Brayden Haughey tossed four and two-thirds innings and he allowed just three earned runs on three hits with three strikeouts and two walks. Keeling tossed one and a third scoreless innings and gave up no hits with one strikeout and one walk.

In the district semifinals, the Panthers knocked off No. 2 seed Clever, 9-5, after scoring four runs in their final at-bat. An error was followed by a dropped third strike, which led to Kadyn Murphy scoring the go-ahead run.

Both Garrett Hutsell and Kaden Richardson added RBI singles while a balk scored another run.

Hutsell finished with two RBIs and one run scored; Keeling had one RBI and scored three runs; Mayberry scored twice; both Haughey and Richardson had one RBI; while both Hoyt Mathews and Murphy scored one run.

On the mound, Mathews tossed four innings and allowed five earned runs on three hits with two strikeouts and four walks.

Mayberry tossed three scoreless innings and gave up two hits with four strikeouts and one walk. Mountain Grove’s final record was 12-13.