Murphy, Texas

East clips Richardson

Sixth-inning rally propels PESH to second district win

By Greg Ford
Sports Editor
gford@wylienews.com

Plano East’s bats were as silent as Dracula in the daytime for most of Monday evening.

However, like their vampire counterpart, the Panthers’ sticks came to life in dark of night and reigned havoc on their victims.

In this case, they were the Richardson Eagles, who fell 6-1 at Plano East, the victims of a six-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The victory improved PESH’s record to 2-1 in District 9-5A, a game behind Allen and Plano West (each 3-0) and tied with Richardson Berkner.

East fell 19-11 to West in a March 12 runfest. The Panthers were scheduled to play at Berkner on Wednesday, the results of which were unavailable at press time. They’ll host Wylie at 7 p.m. Friday and then face McKinney at noon on Saturday in a non-district match.

District play resumes Tuesday, March 25 at Plano.
“We did it when we had to,” head coach Travis Collins said.
“I was wondering through about five innings who we made mad upstairs. We hit the ball, but we didn’t drive anything. We were very fortunate tonight to get a win.

Collins added, “We played hard … We never gave up and
never quit. That’s all we can ask when things aren’t going right, to keep playing hard and good things will eventually happen for us.”

East got a complete-game performance from Derek Bell, who survived a few shaky early innings. However, he surrendered just one run, and kept the Eagles off the board during their final five innings at the plate.

“He did a good job,” the coach said. “He got roughed up a little early … We haven’t supported him with a whole lot of runs his last couple of outings.”
That appeared once again to be the case Monday, as the Panthers couldn’t get anything going against Richardson starter Chase Weaver.

However, that changed when Jeff Emens led off the bottom of the sixth and was hit by a pitch. Adam Humes then was safe on an error, which moved Emens to second.

Bell flew out to center, but Logan Reneau followed that with a single to left that scored Emens.

Pinch-hitter Lance Hanzel loaded the bases with an infield single. Conner Zmolik came to the plate, and a couple of pitches into the count a passed ball allowed Humes to score.
After Zmolik walked to reload the bases, T.J. Bowe cleared them with a triple to the left-field wall. He then scored on a wild pitch.

Weather permitting, the Panthers will play three games in four days.

“It’s just something we had to do because of TAKS testing there at the end,” Collins said, “and we didn’t want to run into a situation where we had playoff games to see who gets into playoffs, which would bump right up into TAKS week.”

In Wylie, the Panthers face a team that’s been erratic but it still dangerous.

“Every game is going to be tough,” Collins said. “If we’re not mentally ready to play and don’t have a high energy level, then we have a chance to get beat.”

He added, “(Against McKinney) we’ll just try to get some guys some at bats who haven’t played here lately. We’ll still come out and play hard, though, and not try to lose any momentum.”

Junior varsity splits with Plano West, Richardson

The Panthers blanked Richardson 9-0 on Monday, which came less than a week after they dropped a 2-1 decision to Plano West.

In that game, West scored the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh.

Aaron Welch and Tyler Johnson each pitched for East, with Johnson getting the loss. Tucker Morehouse had the lone RBI.

Also getting hits were Justin Odle (a triple), Regan Calvert (a single) and Kameron Wilding (a single).

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