For a large part, last week was unfortunate for NRHEG baseball. But it also included an impressive win.
The Panthers made a long road trip east on Tuesday and came home from Zumbrota-Mazeppa — head coach Drew Paukert’s alma mater — with a 4-1 triumph.
It was sandwiched between losses to United South Central and WEM, dropping NRHEG’s record to 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the Gopher Conference after a 0-5 start.
Dempsey Tucker was the story at Zumbrota. The senior ace pitched a complete game, allowing the Cobras one earned run on three hits, striking out two and walking three.
“Dempsey had a fantastic night on the mound,” said Paukert.
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when John Hubly singled and scored on a Jason Jongbloedt single.
Jongbloedt added another RBI single in the fourth as the Panthers scored three times. Cole Staloch and Sawyer VanMeldeghem also had RBIs. Hubly finished 3-for-4, Tucker 2-for-4, Jongbloedt 2-for-4 and Trai Wicks 1-for-1.
“Overall, I was proud of the performance by Demspey,” said Paukert. “Offensively, we got nine hits from five guys. We booted the ball around some. We talked after the game that is something we have to correct; we were fortunate four errors didn’t cost us. However, we know that most games teams make you pay for that many miscues.”
USC 4, NRHEG 1
Three days after upsetting the Rebels 2-1, the Panthers lost a disappointing decision at Wells Monday, May 2.
NRHEG took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on a Sam Prigge RBI single, but USC responded with three two-out runs on only one hit in the bottom of the inning.
Finishing with one hit apiece were Prigge, Staloch, VanMaldeghem, Tucker and Lucas Bailey
Schultz started and took the loss, giving up four earned runs on five hits, with four strikeouts and four walks.
“I didn’t feel like we played great baseball,” said Paukert. “We allowed seven runners to get on by walking them or hitting a batter. Another difference was defensively. USC made a number of great plays, especially in the outfield, that took away hits and kept a run or two off the board. On the other hand, I didn’t feel we played very well defensively despite only committing one official error. We had a number of balls dropped that led to extra bases or extended at bats. Eventually, mental mistakes like that hurt a team, like they did tonight.”
WEM 12, NRHEG 2
The Buccaneers 10-runned the Panthers for the second time this season at New Richland May 4.
Staloch had two hits, with one apiece from VanMaldeghem and Palmer Peterson. Hubly and Peterson had RBIs.
The Bucs scored once in the first, four in the second, three in the fourth and four in the sixth off Panther starter Eli Lutgens, who struck out eight and walked five.
WEM’s ace, Dallas McBroom, fanned nine and walked none.
“The struggles defensively, and putting too many guys on base via walk or hitting batters, is something you can’t do against a quality team like WEM,” said Paukert. “The good news is we have our first opportunity in a while to have two practices before our next game. Hopefully, we can get some things corrected and start to play a better brand of baseball as we get closer to playoff time.”