<\/p>\n
MAUMELLE \u2014 The Benton Panthers swept Maumelle 6-0 and 5-1 on April 14 in conference play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did what we had to do and went to Maumelle and took two games from them,\u201d Benton coach Mark Ballisteri said. \u201cOur pitchers did a great job, giving our defense a chance to make plays. Our outfielders made several great plays in both games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benton jumped out early in the opener, building a 3-0 lead with two runs in the first inning and one in the second. The Panthers\u2019 defense helped maintain control, highlighted by a double play in the third inning and a diving catch by Marcus Bates in the fifth.<\/p>\n
After a quiet stretch offensively, Benton broke through again in the seventh. Marcus Bates doubled in two runs to score Luke Ammons and Caleb Curry, and Micah Bates followed with a sacrifice fly to bring in Marcus Bates and extend the lead to 6-0.<\/p>\n
In the second game, Benton continued its strong play, scoring four runs in the second inning and adding another in the fourth. Maumelle\u2019s only run came in the fourth.<\/p>\n
At the plate in Game 1, Noah Roberson led Benton by going 2 for 3, while Easton Snellings finished 1 for 4 with two RBIs. Curry also drove in two runs. Blake Mitchem pitched a complete game, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out five.<\/p>\n
In Game 2, Sawyer Wilson went 2 for 3 with an RBI, while Marcus Bates added an RBI. Pitcher Evin Campbell allowed one hit and one earned run with two walks and nine strikeouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are currently tied for first in the conference, so we feel good about where we are,\u201d Ballisteri said. \u201cWe still need to keep hitting the baseball, and I think we are headed in the right direction. We only struck out three times in the two games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benton will host Bryant at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MAUMELLE \u2014 The Benton Panthers swept Maumelle 6-0 and 5-1 on April 14 in conference play. \u201cWe did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,2351,5,2316,2323,2314,2317,2313,2325,2413,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,2307,2320,2326,2327,2321,185,2324,2350,2311,2312,1039],"class_list":{"0":"post-677217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-athletic-sports","9":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","10":"tag-base-on-balls","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-baseball-competitions","13":"tag-baseball-events","14":"tag-baseball-finals","15":"tag-baseball-games","16":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","17":"tag-baseball-teams","18":"tag-champion-seasons-in-major-league-baseball","19":"tag-major-league-baseball","20":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","21":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","22":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","23":"tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","24":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","25":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","26":"tag-mlb","27":"tag-mlb-playoffs","28":"tag-mlb-postseason","29":"tag-outdoor-sports","30":"tag-pitcher","31":"tag-run-baseball","32":"tag-seasons-in-american-sport","33":"tag-seasons-in-baseball","34":"tag-sports","35":"tag-sports-events","36":"tag-strikeout","37":"tag-team-sports","38":"tag-turf-sports","39":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}