Over the weekend, the Panther baseball team took to the diamond to take on SWAC contender Southern University in an important home series for the Panthers.
In the first game of the series scoring appeared to be scarce as the Jaguars jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth on a solo home run.
In the same way they have responded all year, the Panthers came back with two runs in the bottom of the fourth on three consecutive hits from Dominiq Harris, Jason Thomas, and Evan Richard. After a RBI double from Kyle Bible in the bottom of the sixth, the Panthers appeared to be in good shape leading 3-1 heading into the eighth inning.
However, in a turn of events, the Jaguars began to muster offense against a tiring Ben Blackburn of the Panthers as a bases loaded single tied the game at three for the Jaguars.
In the top of the ninth, errors plagued the Panthers as a wild pitch with the bases loaded cost the Panthers the lead and the game as the Jaguars pulled out a 5-3 win.
In the second game of the day, the Jaguars again started the scoring in the top of the third with a RBI groundout to make it 1-0.
The Panthers immediately responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, capitalizing on a pair of Southern errors to take a 2-1 lead.
Southern changed the lead again as a three hit fourth inning gave them a 3-2 advantage. Two more Southern errors gave the Panthers the lead again at 4-3 as aggressive base running allowed for capitalization on the throwing errors from Southern.
The Jaguars tied the game in the fifth inning and after a trade of runs in the seventh, the game went into extra innings.
In extras, the Jaguars again took advantage as the first batter in the tenth homered.
A bases loaded single from Southern made the score 8-5 and the Panthers couldn’t muster any offense in the bottom of the inning, giving the game and series to Southern.
Next, the Panthers venture to Pine Bluff to take on the Golden Lions of UAPB.