PAXTON – The Paxton-Buckley-Loda varsity baseball team lost 1-0 to Chillicothe Illinois Valley Central on Saturday.
The game served as a duel of pitching and defense as both teams finished with no errors and combined to produce six hits.
The Grey Ghosts (17-10, 7-1 Illini Prairie Conference) scored the game’s lone run in the first inning as Gabe Perez was hit by a pitch before Griffen Landsverk hit a two-out double to right field to send Perez across home plate.
“It was a really clean game. They ended up getting one hit just out of our reach. We hit a couple of balls that were right at them in similar situations,” PBL head coach Brock Niebuhr said. “That’s baseball sometimes, but I’m not going to fault the effort. We just couldn’t get one to fall in. I’m disappointed with the outcome, but that’s a really good baseball team and that was a really good baseball game.”
The Panthers (12-11, 3-5) left six runners on base.
In the bottom of the first inning, Bryar Cosgrove got on base with a bunt single and Kayden Vance drew a walk, but Charles Cambridge flied out to center field and Johnny Rodeen grounded out.
In the fourth inning, Connor Murphy drew a two-out walk and Dylan Vance singled to right field before Colsen Hayden grounded out. Cosgrove drew a two-out walk before being caught stealing second base.
Kayden Vance led off the sixth inning with a single and Rodeen was hit by a pitch before Connor Murphy grounded into a 1-6-2 double play on which Vance was tagged out at home plate.
Perez struck out 10 batters and walked four for IVC while allowing no runs on our hits through 6 2/3 innings. Grant Bramer struck out Jack Wesslund to end the game.
“Perez is really good. He’s throwing in the mid-80s,” Niebuhr said. “He’s throwing changeups and breaking balls and keeping us off balance all day. I thought we did a really good job of competing and having competitive at-bats. We hit some balls with runners on that just didn’t find holes. I thought we did a great job of competing all day.”
Tyler Cole struck out five batters and walked three for PBL while allowing one earned run on two hits.
“Tyler threw the ball well and we were good behind him defensively,” Niebuhr said.
Kayden Vance made a diving catch in center field for the third out of the top of the fourth inning.
“That was a heck of a play out in center field,” Niebuhr said. “He’s done that for us all year long. He’s been tremendous out there.”
After hosting Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley on Monday, PBL will play its IPC finale at St. Thomas More on Thursday before playing its regular-season finale at Clifton Central on Friday.
The Panthers will then host their IHSA Class 2A Tolono Unity Regional quarterfinal game against St. Thomas More at 4:30 p.m. Monday, May 19.
“We’ll get ready for this last week before the postseason begins,” Niebuhr said.
IVC 1, PBL 0
IVC 100 000 0 — 1 2 0
PBL 000 000 0 — 0 4 0
W – Gabe Perez, 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 10 K, 4 BB. L – Tyler Cole, 7 IP, 2 H, ER, 5 K, 3 BB. S – Grant Bramer, 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, K, 0 BB.
IVC (17-10, 7-1) – Perez R. Brynden Coventry 1-3, 2B. Griffen Landsverk 1-3, 2B, RBI.
PBL (12-11, 3-5) – Bryar Cosgrove 1-2. Kayden Vance 1-2. Connor Murphy 1-2. Dylan Vance 1-3.