- January 1, 2025
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In the first meeting between neighboring rivals, the Dr. Phillip Panthers jumped ahead early and stayed ahead Thursday afternoon, as they went on to top the Windermere Wolverines 10-0.
With the win, the Panthers (9-8) snapped a three game losing streak.
“I’m very happy, because we haven’t been able to do it,” Dr. Phillips head coach Mike Bradley said on his team putting together a complete performance. “We’ve either pitched well and haven’t hit (or) hit well and haven’t pitched well — finally we were able to play a complete game for once, and it’s a good feeling.”
Hamzah Nobles opened the game with a double for Dr. Phillips and went on to score the game’s first run on a ground out from August Haymaker, getting things rolling for the Panthers.
In the third inning, Dr. Phillips would extend its lead on an RBI single from CJ Cantwell. Brandon Fields would follow suit with an RBI single of his own and Will Sullivan busted the game wide-open with a two-run double that extended the lead to 5-0.
Offensively, the Panthers were led by Nobles, who went 4-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored. Cantwell and Sullivan each had two hits and two RBIs. Dr. Phillips totaled 11 hits as a team.
“We hit the ball hard and that’s something that we haven’t been doing,” Bradley said. “For us to finally take that step forward and reap the benefit of it, as far as the psyche of the team and especially right now towards the end of the season, where it’s the most important part to play your best baseball at the end.”
Jason Grant and Jordan Dozier accounted for the only hits for the Wolverines.
Cort Roedig earned the win for the Panthers, throwing three innings and allowing just one hit. Eric Leon-Gil and Stephen Luttrell combined to pitch four innings in relief, giving up just one hit between the two of them.
“We only threw 86 pitches in seven innings and anytime you can do that, keep it under 100, you’re doing really well," Bradley said. "The name of the game is get as many out as fast as possible, and we did that today.”
Windermere will look to bounce back tomorrow as they face the Celebration Storm in a district contest at home at 4:30 p.m.
Dr. Phillips will look to continue the momentum from their win tomorrow, as they go on the road to face the Cypress Creek Bears in a critical district game at 4:30 p.m. The Panthers fell to the Bears on April 4th, 7-3.
“We lost the freebie war last time (against the Bears),” Bradley said. “We walked too many guys and we also made five errors in the field. We hit the ball OK, just right at guys. We gotta play like we did today. If we can do that then we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win the game.”