PAXTON – With a 13-5 victory over Watseka on Tuesday, the Paxton-Buckley-Loda varsity baseball team has won seven of its last eight games.
“We took care of business. It’s a good win. We’ll put another one in the win column,” PBL head coach Brock Niebuhr said. “We’re trying to build some confidence as we get into the postseason, and this just adds it for us.”
It was the second of four games scheduled for PBL’s final week of the regular season. The performance by Kayden Vance on the mound helped the Panthers save their arms as he allowed five runs – one earned – on 10 hits and no walks with four strikeouts through six innings.
“Anytime you’ve got a lot of games scheduled in a week, you need a guy to be able to eat up some innings for you,” Niebuhr said. “Kayden stepped up and was an innings eater for us today, which was exactly what we needed him to do. He threw strikes and kept his pitch count down. Kayden did a nice job on the mound.”
Vance also contributed offensively, hitting 2-for-3. In the second inning, he hit a two-out triple into center field that turned into an inside-the-park home run via a throwing error.
The run gave PBL (15-10) a 2-1 lead the Panthers would not surrender.
“Offensively, he’s continuing to battle,” Niebuhr said. “He put a good swing on the ball today, and then let his athleticism take over.”
The Panthers led 1-0 after the first inning as Tyler Cole drew a walk before stealing second base and advancing to third base on an error. Noah Steiner sent him home with a line-drive base hit to center field.
Watseka tied the game at 1-1 prior to Vance’s inside-the-park homer. Following Vance’s go-ahead run, Bryar Cosgrove drew a walk and stole second base before scoring as Cole reached base on an error to extend PBL’s lead to 3-1.
After Watseka cut its deficit to 4-2 in the top of the third inning, PBL scored five more runs in the bottom of the third to extend its lead to 8-2.
Charles Cambridge drew a leadoff walk before scoring on a Conner Vaughn double to left field. Luke Krumwiede drew another walk before Andrew Martinez lined a base hit to center field to send Vaughn across home plate.
Krumwiede scored on a Colsen Hayden fielder’s choice before Cosgrove drew a two-out walk, Cole singled to right field to send Hayden home and Steiner – who finished the game hitting 3-for-5 – singled to send Cosgrove across home plate.
In the fifth inning, PBL scored four more runs to extend its advantage to 12-4.
Vance hit a leadoff infield single and Cosgrove doubled to left field before Vance scored on a sacrifice fly ball by Cole. Steiner doubled to right field to right field to send Cosgrove across home plate.
Cambridge singled to left field to send Steiner home. After Vaughn and Krumwiede each drew a walk, Jack Wesslund scored on a Martinez sacrifice lineout.
In the sixth inning, Jace Webb hit a leadoff single before Cosgrove drew a walk. After Webb stole third base, he scored as Cole reached base on a dropped third strike.
“Offensively, I thought we played really well,” Niebuhr said. “We had contributors across the board, which is huge for us. When we have nine guys consistently putting together competitive, tough at-bats, it just makes it hard on their pitcher. When there’s no easy outs and nobody’s giving away at-bats, it puts a lot of stress on the other team. We saw some balls fall in. Hopefully, we can continue to build on this. We’ve been swinging it pretty well recently. We just need to keep things rolling.”
Cosgrove pitched the final inning for PBL, allowing no runs on two hits and no walks.
“Defensively, we were solid for the most part,” Niebuhr said.
PBL 13, Watseka 5
WAT 011 201 0 — 5 12 5
PBL 125 041 x — 13 11 4
W – Kayden Vance, 6 IP, 10 H, 5 R, ER, 4 K, 0 BB. L – Marcier, 4 IP, 6 H, 8 R, 5 ER, K, 7 BB.
Watseka – L. Bowling 1-1, 2B. B. Ketchum 3-3, 2B, 2 R. A. Morris 2-4, RBI. F. Shervino 1-3, R. J. Newell 2-4. T. Waugh 2-4, R. M. Galyen 1-4, R.
PBL (15-10) – Bryar Cosgrove 1-2, 2B, 3 R, 3 BB. Tyler Cole 1-3, 3 RBIs, R. Noah Steiner 3-5, 2B, 3 RBIs, R. Charles Cambridge 1-3, RBI, R. Conner Vaughn 1-4, 2B, RBI, R. Luke Krumwiede R, 2 BB. Andrew Martinez 1-3, 2 RBIs. Colsen Hayden RBI, R. Kayden Vance 2-3, 3B, 2 R. Jace Webb 1-1, R. Jack Wesslund R.
