Juhl goes the distance to beat Indians

The Pekin Panthers baseball squad avenged their early season loss to Wapello by beating the Indians 3-2 on June 12. The first time the two teams met up this season the game went into extra innings, which finally ended in a 5-6 loss for Pekin in 11 innings of play.

    Pekin got out to an early lead against the Indians by plating two runs in the top of the second inning with Keaton Baayen and Quinn Ledger accounting for the scores. Wapello would go on to halve that by scoring one in the bottom of the third, keeping both sides on edge.

    Neither Pekin nor Wapello managed to get anything going over the next three innings as the pitching and defense took control. Wapello finally ended the drought by bringing in the tying run in the bottom of the sixth but were held to that lone run.

    “I don’t think we held them off, it came down to our pitching and great defense to get the win,” Pekin coach Pie Reighard said. “We played error free baseball and we’re a good baseball team when we play like that.”

    Pekin led off the seventh with a double by Tanner Bainbridge who put himself in scoring position. A routine ball from Ryan Stansberry led to the out at first and then Bainbridge took off for third. The throw from first to third got by the glove of the third baseman, which sent Bainbridge sprinting home to give Pekin the lead, which brought cheers from the dugout and the Panther fans in the bleachers. Torell Washington was a split-second from being safe at first on a groundout and Keaton Baayen struck out to end the inning.

    Skyler Juhl remained on the mound after throwing six quality innings with an opportunity to pick up the win. The leadoff batter for the Indians managed to get on base with an infield single and then stole second. A ground out left Wapello with two outs and a runner in scoring position. Juhl locked in on his target to get a big strikeout and blew the final pitch past the last batter to get him swinging and end the game.

    A moment of celebration by Juhl coming off the mound into the dugout after getting the final out embodied just how big a win it was.

The win ended a four-game losing streak for the Panthers which came from tough competition such as New London and Mediapolis.

    “This is the second part of our season as far as conference play goes,” Reighard said. “We needed to start playing great again. We could be battling for the top alongside Mepo and Wapello if we didn’t have that losing streak. This win was important to push us forward.”

    Pekin leaders: Torell Washington/Keaton Baayen – 2 hits, Tanner Bainbridge/Keaton Baayen/Quinn Ledger – 1 run, Ryan Stansberry/Cody Hassinen – 1 RBI, Skyler Juhl – 4 Ks

    Pekin hoped to close out their week on a high note by hosting Holy Trinity Catholic on June 13 followed by Winfield Mt. Union on June 14 and on the road at West Burlington on June 15.