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Pre-Season Gameday Summaries
Feb 23rd - The Huntsville Panthers rallied in the finals of their
pre-season tournament, but couldn't hold on as they fell to cross town rival, Grissom High School last evening by a score
of 14-10. Hunstville jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st when Clay Holcomb singled and then advanced
to 3rd and later on to home on a passed ball and AJ Cole scored on a passed ball after being hit by a pitch, stealing bases
and then being driven home on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Dennis. But Grissom answered with 3 runs in their first at bat,
starting with Ducan Harrity's RBI double that was followed by a 2xRBI home run by Blake Crank putting
the Tigers up 3-2 going into the 2nd inning.
The Tigers extented their lead to 7-2 in the bottom of the 2nd when
Josh McCurty hit a Grand Slam. But the Panthers found a way to comeback in the top of the 3rd when Steven Scrip lead
off with a single followed by a series of walks and HBP's that loaded the bases and forced in 2 runs. From
there, RBI singles from Austin Hatfield and again by Steven Script wrapped up a 7 run scoring spur that gave the Panthers
a 9-7 lead.
Neither team scored again until the top of the 5th inning when Austin Hatfield hit a solo home
run extending the Panthers lead to 10-7. But Grissom exploded with seven runs in the bottom of the
5th to put the game away. Casey Lamberth delivered a solid relief performance on the mound for the Panthers when he
entered the game in the middle of the 2nd inning. His 5 strikeouts helped to stiffle Grissom's scoring
and set-up the Panther's rally. With this loss, the Panthers finished its pre-season with a 3-2 record.
Next up, they will travel to Gadsden City on Friday to open their regular season.
Feb 22nd - The Huntsville Panthers overcame a 0-5 deficit to beat
the Madison Academy Mustangs by a final score of 6-5. The Mustangs jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the 4th, largely
due to great pitching from Mustang Drew Mobley aided by the power hitting of both Mobley and Stafford Booth who each hit homeruns
to go along with doubles.
But, Huntsville's, Danny Koger came to the mound in the middle of the 4th inning
and halted the Mustang's threat to put the game out of reach as he standed a bases loaded situation to keep the Panthers
in the game. He went on to shutdown the Mustang's potent line-up batters giving his team the
opportunity to comeback with 6 runs - four of which were scored on Mustang infield errors. With this win, the
Panthers will move into the finals of this pre-season event where they will faced their crosstown rivals, Grissom
High School on Tuesday at 6:00pm.
Feb 20 - Huntsville 13, Austin 1 – The Huntsville Panthers extended
their Pre-Season win record to 3-1 on Saturday, after beating Austin Black Bears by a score of 13-1 in a game where they dusted
the rust of their prior cold weather games aside and had a near perfect game. The Panther scoring got started
in the top of the 2nd inning when Anthony Rapiere got on base with a double that was immediately followed by an
RBI double from Austin Hatfield that put the Panthers up 1-0. The Panthers
held a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd inning when Austin Hatfield chased down a hard hit drive into deep right
centerfield and then made a major league class throw to Anthony Rapiere at 3rd base who grabbed the pin-point throw
and tagged out runner halting what would have otherwise been an easy walk to 3rd for the Black Bears.
This play stifled Austin’s rally and moved the game into the 4th inning.
In the top of the 4th, the Panthers got hits and steals from Steven and AJ Cole placing
runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Austin elected to intentionally walk catcher,
Andrew Dennis to load the bases. This proved pivotal, as Daniel Koger stepped to the plate with the bases
loaded and promptly crushed a “Grand-Slam” high off the High School wall to break the game open giving the Panthers
a 6-0 lead. Huntsville would pad this lead later with several base hits including a solo homerun by Anthony
Rapiere.
AJ Cole pitched an outstanding game to get the
13-1 win before turning the mound over to Stephen Westbrook who adeptly closed the game out with 2 strikeouts in the 5th.
While AJ recorded at 10 strikeouts and no more than 2 base hits, the Panther defense was
rock solid and near perfect with many outstanding defensive plays that kept runners off the base including Austin Hatfield’s
outstanding throw to 3rd base, and later Anthony Rapiere’s sure glove at 3rd to rob Austin’s
Camp of a “sure base hit”, capped by Chandler McCully’s catch off the fence in deep right centerfield once
again robbing Austin Black Bear’s outstanding hitter Justin Camp of what would otherwise been a sure double.
Panthers getting RBI hits were: Rapiere (double and a homerun), Koger
(Grand Slam), along with RBI’s by Clay Holcomb, AJ Cole (double), Andrew Dennis (double), and Ryan
Barnes (double). Others getting hits were Cody Burton and Gant Weeks.
Feb 19th – Huntsville 9, Florence 3: The Huntsville
Panthers continued their winning ways last evening as they scratched and clawed they way past the Florence Falcons by a score
of 9-3. Florence jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the 2nd inning, but Huntsville's quickly
responded when Steven Scrip reached base on an error and Cody Burton singled. Next, Andrew Dennis crushed
a hard ground double over 3rd base to the left field fence that drove in Scrip. Then, Evan Brindley tied
the game when he blasted a triple that split the gap and bounced off the left centerfield fence driving in 2 runs to
tie the game. Brindley then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Clay Holcomb to put the Panthers up 4-3
where they would not look back. From this point, the Panther Pitching and defense dug in to shut down the
Falcons scoring. In the bottom of the 3rd, Andrew Smelser singled, stole
bases, and scored on a Falcon error putting the Panthers up 5-3 after the 3 innings. In the
bottom of the 4th, Andrew Dennis blasted a solo lead-off homerun that stretched the panther lead to 6-3.
Next, Evan Brindley singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Next, Steven Cole hit an RBI single
scoring Brindley and later scored on an RBI single by Daniel Koger putting the Panthers up by 8-3 after 4 innings. In
the 6th, Ryan Barnes, Steven Cole and Daniel Koger each singled setting up an RBI by Andrew Smelser to put the
score at 9-3 going into the 7th where Casey Lambert shut the door by striking out 2 Falcons and forcing a ground
out to end the game.
Lefty Chandler McCully started on the mound and pitched 3
full innings to get the win. He Struck out 3 Falcons and walked 4 before being relievd by Casey Lambert in the top of
the 4th. Casey pitched a picture perfect 4 innings to earn the save, shutting down the Falcons
by striking out 9, walking only 2 while allowing only 3 hits. At one point, Casey had retired 5 consecutive batters
- clearly an outstanding night on the mound by any measure.
Panther's getting
RBI/hits were AJ Cole, Clay Holcomb, Andrew Dennis (3), Andrew Smelser, Andrew Dennis (3+HR), Evan Brindley (2), and Andrew
Smelser. Andrew Dennis got 3 hits including a homerun. Next up, the Panthers will face a real test when they take
on Austin of Decatur as the tournament moves out of pool play and into bracket play.
Feb
18 - The Huntsville Panthers rebounded from a chilling start on a cold opening day for the 2010 pre-season tournament
by beating Russellville by a score of 8-1. Although the Panthers still showed signs that their game is
not yet fully tuned, they rallied around great pitching and found enough offense and defense to rebound from
a dishearten opening loss to Sparkman with a very satisfying win.
Daniel Koger started on the mound and pitched a very solid 3 innings that included overcoming
a 1st inning run that given up as a result of an error in the Panthers infield. This run proved
to be Russellville‘s only score in the game. Koger went on to strike out
6 batters while giving up only 2 walks and only 1 hit. Luke Leeth came in to relieve in the top of
the 4th inning and held the Tigers scoreless for 3 innings as he struck out 7, walked only 2 batters, and allowed
only 2 hits. Thomas Kimbrough came in to close out the game and gave up no hits or walks as he shut the
door and earned the save.
Although
the Panthers offense continued to sputter, they were able to get 4 runs that were furnished from the bats of Andrew Smelser
(2xhits, 2xRBI’s), Steven Scrip (3 hits, 1 RBI), and CJ Urban (1xhit, 1xRBI). The Panthers managed
to score 4 more runs that came from hits by AJ Cole and Cody Burton coupled with walks by Steven Cole and Anthony Rapiere
combined with Russellville errors.
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