Circling the bases: Lady Panthers open with offensive explosion
Softball
O’Fallon 19, East St. Louis 0
The Lady Panthers opened the week with an offensive explosion, blasting East St. Louis 19-0 in five innings.
After a scoreless first inning, the scoring merry-go-round began with the OTHS girls erupting for six runs in the second and eight more tallies in the third inning to record their seventh win in nine games.
Cassie Brown was a perfect 3-for-3 in the O’Fallon blowout, scoring twice and driving in two runs. Jade Williams (3-4 with two RBI’s), Addison Barnouski (2-4 with two RBI’s) and Jordan DeRemer (2-3 with two RBI’s) contributed to the O’Fallon romp.
O’Fallon 9, Belleville East 7
The runs just kept coming for the O’Fallon girls — and they would need all nine of them to survive a 3-run seventh inning rally by the Lancers to collect a 9-7 SWC victory.
The Lady Panthers’ clean-up hitter, Ginger Huskey, was in the middle of the offensive action, banging out three hits in four trips to the plate. Courtney Keller, Addison Barnouski and Jade Williams each stroked two hits.
The OTHS squad overcame an initial 1-0 deficit with a 4-run third stanza.
Belleville East answered in the bottom of the frame, cutting O’Fallon’s advantage to 4-3.
The Lady Panthers got one run back in the top of fourth. Another 4-run offensive spurt in the fifth increased O’Fallon’s lead to 9-3.
O’Fallon ace, Addison Barnouski, struggled to preserve the lead over the final two innings but had enough fuel in the tank to stop the Lancers.
Normal 3, O’Fallon 0
The Lady Panthers’ run production came to a screeching halt in their third game of the week.
They were unable to take advantage of a solid pitching performance by Katie Moore, who allowed only two hits over her seven innings of work.
The three safeties by the visitors from Normal manufactured three runs in the third inning, which proved to be enough for the victory as the OTHS girls were stymied at the plate.
Allison Underwood was the only Panther batter to collect a hit in the 3-0 loss, giving OTHS an overall record of 7-3 as they prepare for a full schedule of games this week including conference match-ups against Granite City and Edwardsville and a home double-header against Columbia this Saturday.
Baseball
O’Fallon 20, East St. Louis 0
Runs came in bunches for the Panthers to open the week as they blasted the hapless East St. Louis Flyers 20-0 in five innings.
A 7-run first set the tone for O’Fallon but was only a preview of things to come as the OTHS batsmen reloaded and chased across 11 more runs in the second stanza.
A 3-run double by Dillon Weiss and a 2-run single by Joe Guithes highlighted the Panthers’ first inning explosion. Guithes added a round-tripper later in the game.
Bradley Snyder was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate, and Kurt Ober banged out two hits in three at-bats, driving in three runs.
O’Fallon 6, Civic Memorial 3
Civic Memorial took an initial 1-0 in the first inning. Eagle hurler Corey Price doubled home Brandon Hampton. The slim one run advantage held up until the third whey the Panthers erupted for five runs.
Back to back doubles by Bradley Harrison and Brad Snyder opened the O’Fallon third inning uprising.
After Joe Guithes flied out to right field, Camden Bauer stepped to the plate and promptly ripped a double into right field, his second hit of the game.
Dillon Weiss capped the rally with a base hit to right field, driving in the fifth run of the game.
Civic Memorial shaved two runs of the OTHS lead in the fourth inning, but Camden Bauer ended the Bethalto threat by striking out Geoff Withers to end the inning. Max Schaefer earned the win with three strong innings of work, allowing only one run on one hit.
This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Circling the bases: Lady Panthers open with offensive explosion."