Kats jump on Panthers in first inning on way to rivalry win

Posted: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 9:42 pm | Updated: 10:41 pm, Mon Apr 26, 2010.


by Peter Adelsen

RUSSIAVILLE - Coming off of an 11-1 pounding from Lafayette Jeff Tuesday, the Kokomo Wildkats bounced back with consistent hitting and excellent pitching in its win over the Western Panthers 7-3 on Wednesday.

Kokomo jumped on the Panthers in the first inning scoring three runs off of Western senior pitcher Bryson Platt. Kokomo scored on back-to-back RBI hits from seniors T.J. Weir and Nolan Sanburn. Weir drove in senior Casey Shipley and Sanburn hit a two-run blast passed the center field fence to drive in Weir and himself.

Western got back a run in the bottom of the first inning with a home run to deep left field from junior Connor Love.

From that point on, it was consistency. Kokomo had it at the plate as a team and on the mound with Weir. Weir pitched a complete game in allowing three runs on seven hits.

With a 3-2 lead in the third inning, Kokomo senior Michael Reynolds hit a two-run homer to give the Kats some more breathing room.

The Panthers responded with an RBI double from junior Connor Love to bring in junior Damon Reel in the fifth inning, but that was the last Western would score in the loss to Kokomo.

"It was a big win," Kokomo coach Steve Edwards said. "Playing in a rivalry game against Western is always competitive for us and to come out and jump on them early with that three-run home run that was big."

Edwards said after the first inning start, the biggest hit in the game was Reynold's home run in the third inning.

"Ultimately when we jump out on top of teams, we're going to have a lot more confidence," he said. "I think we showed it."

Western coach Ty Calloway said the difference in the game was consistency on the mound and hitting at the plate.

"We didn't pitch that poorly, but their batting was a little more consistent at the plate than our guys up through the line-up," he said. "(Kokomo) could put one to two, two to three hits together. We would only get one (hit) here and one there and they had less strike-outs than we did."

Kokomo (4-1) next takes the field at 6 p.m. Friday against the Frankfort Hot Dogs. Western (3-1) next takes the diamond at 5 p.m. Tuesday at home against Mid-Indiana Conference rival Maconaquah Braves.