Playing one of their best games of the season against a quality opponent, the Russellville Panthers won their ninth straight tournament game Memorial
Day, riding the sturdy back of their senior star to a berth in the 4th Region baseball semifinals.
Tuesday, their young players gave them hope of reaching the regional finals before the wheels came off the Panther Express.
Behind the pitching of senior southpaw Darrin Murphy, RHS shut out a Glasgow team which had won 25 games coming into regional play at Western Kentucky
University's Nick Denes Field. Coach Lou Kendall's team picked up the 2-0 victory by getting timely hits and playing good defense behind Murphy's
dominating pitching.
Tuesday, the Panthers picked up a 2-0 lead again and kept the score knotted at 2-2 until powerful Warren Central used booming bats in the fifth and
sixth innings to win 11-3, ending Russellville's season at 21-8.
Nine of those wins came in tournament play. Kendall's team won two games against Carlisle County in what was called the Russellville Tournament, beat
Cumberland County and Monroe County to win the Class A regional crown, knocked off Owensboro Catholic in the Class A substate, got a thrilling 1-0
decision in nine innings over a good Middlesboro team at Class A state, edged Franklin-Simpson and dominated Logan County to take their first 13th
District championship in 19 years, and then held off Glasgow for the program's first win at region since beating Glasgow by another two-run margin 11
seasons ago. (The Class A state semifinals and finals were rained out.)
Panthers 2, Glasgow 0
Murphy was close to perfect on the mound. He threw a three-hit shutout, striking out nine and walking none. He did hit a batter in the final inning,
but quickly erased him on a fielder's choice. It was Murphy's 12th win of the season, a team record during the many years Kendall has been the RHS
coach.
Additionally and appropriately, Murphy drove in what proved to be the winning run. That came in the first inning after a couple of balk calls on
Glasgow pitcher Dean Glass by second base umpire Tim Summers. The inning began with RHS senior shortstop Andra Edmonds singling. Edmonds had two hits
and reached base all three times he came to bat. Thomas Shifllett then walked, the first of four times he was on base during the tournament. D.J.
Quarles forced Edmonds, but Shifflett went to third on one of the balks. He scored when Murphy hit the ball to the right side of the infield with the
first baseman's only play at first.. Dudley Bouldin walked, but the Panthers settled for one run.
The other Panther run came in the fifth inning with two outs. Edmonds walked and Shifflett got his second hit. This time Quarles connected for a hit,
driving in Edmonds, who had a solid game at the plate and in the field.
Sophomore Caleb Wills got the Panthers' fifth and final hit in the sixth with two outs, but he was stranded.
The first 10 Scotties were retired in order, although Tyler Emberton singled in the second inning. Catcher Seth Washington threw him out when he tried
to steal second. Brock Johnson doubled with one out in the fourth inning. Murphy, however, struck out the number three hitter and got the cleanup
hitter to ground out to Brian Harris at first to end that threat.
In the fifth, Emberton got his second hit and the team's last with one out. Glass sacrificed him over. Murphy followed with a called strike three and a
fly out to Shifflett in center to end that one. The leadoff hitter walked to start the seventh, but Murphy got a ground ball to third with Quarles
throwing the ball to second baseman Barrett Croslin for the force out. Then he induced an infield popup by Emberton and struck out Glass to end the
game and the Scotties' season at 25-11.
Warren Central 11, Panthers 3
The Panthers took an early lead in this one, too. Bouldin walked to open the second inning and scored on Washington's hustling triple. Then courtesy
runner Luke Boisseau came home on Wills' sacrifice fly.
Central, which won the 14th District, tied it at 2-2 in the bottom of the second. Starting pitcher Shifflett walked Shane Waldrop and hit Preston
Beckner with a pitch. Jacob King, who was the long-range shooter on the Dragons' state quarterfinalist team, singled to load the bases. Shifflett hit
Michael Bush with a pitch to drive in Waldrop, and Spencer Sheldon reached on a sacrifice bunt to tie the game.
The score stayed knotted until the fifth inning when Central scored three runs.on three hits and three walks. Kendall relieved Shifflett, who had
pitched four strong innings, with eighth grade pitcher Corey Wright, who had closed out the district finals. Wright walked in a run on the first batter
he faced, but then he got two fielders' choices.
The Dragons teed off on Wright's fastball in the sixth inning and scored six more runs on five hits, a hit batsman and an error, but Wright got a
flyout to get out of a bases-loaded jam.
Quarles scored the final run of the Panthers' season when he led off the sixth inning with a single. Murphy moved him over before Bouldin singled him
in and went to second on the throw. It was Bouldin's second hit of the game and his third time to reach. Washington made a bid for a second hit, but
Bouldin tried to go to third where the infielder was waiting with the ball. It was the second time in the game that a Panther runner had been tagged
out at third on a play that he didn't have to go.
Shifflett doubled for the second time in the game with an out in the seventh.
Russellville loses five starters from this team in Murphy, Edmonds, Harris and D.J. Watkins and designated hitter Bouldin. Returning are junior
Quarles, eighth graders Croslin and Wright, and sophomores Wills, Shifflett and Washington.
Warren Central blistered Russell County in the finals and advances to state.