Pioneers sweep Panthers on the road

CRC entered the contest in search of the game that would get them back in the W column.

Corby Seib toed the rubber, leading the Pioneers into the fray and allowing him to claim his first win of the season.

The Pioneer sticks came hot on the cold 38-degree day at the ball field. CRC rattled off 13 hits and scored 12 runs against the Panthers of Principia College.

Leading the Pioneers’ attack from the box was Trey Gossett. Gossett, only being one single away from recording CRC’s first-ever “cycle,” reached first in the top of the first by an error driving in his first run of the day, he then doubled in the third that scored one more, tripled in the fourth scoring his third RBI of the game and topped it off with a solo shot to left field in the sixth completing his resume for the day. Adonis Thomas and Blake Wilson also recorded multi-hit games along with several other Pioneers getting in the hit column.

Seib went eight innings allowing eight hits and retiring 13 to the dugout with strikeouts. The Pioneers won it with a steep score of 12-1.

Saturday

Game One: Crowley’s Ridge – 13, Principia College – 1The Pioneers continued the series Saturday with a double-header, and kept things rolling into day two of the series with the same mentality of scoring early and often.

Josh Schmitt collected the RBI in the top of the second pushing the Pioneers ahead by taking a pitch and driving across Adonis Thomas. Chance Arender climbed the pitcher’s mound and made quick work of the Panthers. Arender kept the Panthers shut out until the sixth when they scored their only run of the game off a single to center field.

Meanwhile, the Pioneers scored two more in the third on back-to-back hard hits with Thomas tripling to center field and Seib reaching first with the help of a botched play by the right fielder. Matt Parker continued his day at the plate by smashing a two-run shot to left field collecting his third hit of the game in the sixth extending the CRC lead to 5-0. Again, the Panthers scored their only run in the bottom half of the sixth inning, but the Pioneers ran away with the game by getting eight Pioneers to home plate ensuring the lead for the win 13-1.

Game Two: Crowley’s Ridge – 3, P

rincipia College – 2

Game two would turn out to be a closer contest with the game being decided by one run.

JackHenry Glasgow would get the start for the Pioneers and dealt the Panthers a hard hand as he only allowed three hits over seven innings. Like the two previous games, CRC got on the board first, this time it came in the third inning with Trey Drake using his legs and scoring on a wild pitch.

Trey Gossett continued his weekend in the box by barreling a ball to center field in the fifth that scored Drake and Matt Parker for CRC’s next two and final runs of the game.

With the lead to pitch with, Glasgow kept the Panthers off the scoreboard for almost the entire contest until they struck in the bottom of the seventh with their third hit of the game. The Paragould native left a little too much of the ball over the plate and the Panthers capitalized hitting a two-run HR making things interesting and cutting the Pioneers’ lead to one, 3-2.

Glasgow didn’t panic and retired the next two batters with a fly ball to Vancell Lucas in right field and collected the final out himself with a grounder back to the pitcher. Pioneers completed the series sweep three games to none.