Panthers vs. Blast
April 18, 1997

L 21-19

Lots of hitting by both teams is the story of tonight's game! The Blast and the Panthers brought their bats to this game and got good use out of them.

This was our first game as a home team. Blast started off the first inning with 5 quick runs. The Panthers got their first 3 girls on (Marissa, Maudie, and Olivia), then Kelly came to the plate. She whacked the ball good and drove in a lot of runs. Brittany got a hit and Melanie drove in our 5th run with a nice hit! The score was 5-5 after one inning.

The second inning looked just about the same. Blast got 5 runs and we got 5 runs. The defensive highlight was a forceout at second base by Rene! The offensive highlight was Kelly smacking the ball to drive in some runs. The girls in the bottom of the lineup, especially Justina and Lisa did a good job of putting the ball in play. The score was tied 10-10 after two innings.

Blast scored 5 more runs in the 3rd inning. Defensively, Maudie made a nice tag out at third base! In our third inning, Brittany led us off with a hit and then Ellen Ann came to the plate with one out. Although we've had some hard hit balls this year, Ellen Ann hit the best one yet, a line drive homerun that scored her and Brittany! Everyone was so excited!! We only scored those 2 runs. So Blast led 15-12 after 3 innings.

Blast just kept on hitting! They scored 5 more runs in the fourth inning. The Panthers came back and scored 3, closing the score to 20-15.

In the fifth inning, we held Blast to only one run! Then we scored 4 more -- everyone on both teams was hitting the ball all over the field! But it wasn't enough to beat Blast. The Panthers fell 21-19.

It was a little sad to come so close to beating Blast. Both teams were well matched. But the Panther girls remained upbeat. In fact, they were still cheering for Ellen Ann's super homerun when the game was over. There were lots of girls with good performances tonight, including Kelly's clutch hitting with runners on base. But Coach Rodney had to agree. Ellen Ann's homer was so super that she deserved to be our Panther of the Day!

-- Velvet