Don Kuhnen, AP Sports
For the second time this week, the EP girls cruised past Morrison in five innings, 17-2. The Panthers took advantage of 10 Fillie errors to easily claim another conference win.
The Panthers started quickly scoring 3 runs in the top of the first. Aylah Jones and Emma Davis set the table with singles to left. Jaden Johnson walked to load the bases. Mya Jones then lined to the pitcher which was knocked down and forced Aylah at home. Three consecutive walks then produced a 3-0 head start for EP.
Morrison used a walk, stolen base and single to score one in the bottom of the inning. EP then exploded for 9 runs in the second.
Jones walked, stole second and scored on another Davis single. The next four Panther hitters hit hard grounders to the left side of the infield which were all booted by the Fillies and all six of those Panthers scored. RBI hits were registered by Mekenzie Loechel, Jenna Gibson and Davis to make the score 12-1 after an inning and a half. The Panthers tallied one more in the third and added a four spot in the fifth to reach a total of 17.
Morrison scored another run in the third but then a nice double play of shortstop to first to home ended their threat for more runs.
The Panthers had multiple hit games from Aylah Jones, Davis and Sydney Schwartz. Also contributing to the Panther offense were RBI leaders Loechel with 3 and 2 each from Davis, Jaylynn Hamilton, Oleson and Schwartz.
Aylah Jones worked the first four innings allowing 1 hit, 2 unearned runs, 3 walks and striking out 9. Hamilton pitched the fifth inning to clean up the victory.
EP is now 8-0 in conference play, 10-1 overall and travel to Bureau Valley Friday for a non-conference matchup to end their busy week.
