Panthers win district

COLDWATER - St. Henry went through Parkway to win last week's sectional title.

The Panthers flipped the script on the Redskins at district.

The boys of summer from Rockford returned from Wednesday's rain postponement to capture the ACME District 4 championship by completing a 4-2 victory on Thursday at Veterans Field.

Next stop for the Panthers is the quarterfinals of the state tournament at Montgomery Field in Celina, where they'll face Fairview on Saturday at 5 p.m.

"It feels kind of unreal," said pitcher/outfielder Trace Walls, who went 3-0 with a save against St. Henry this season. "I mean, we've played all of our high school careers and it's always been our goal. Now we're seniors and it actually happened."

"It's just huge for the program, because I don't remember seeing another Parkway team make it this far in anything except for softball," said Carson Ford, whose three-run home run on Wednesday proved to be the deciding factor.

This was the sixth game this summer between Parkway and St. Henry. Thanks to Ford's homer and the pitching of Logan Huff and Walls, there would be no Game Seven.

The Panthers, winners of the season series four games to two, entered Thursday leading 4-0 with the Redskins coming to bat in the bottom of the third.

Ryan Luttmer's double helped the Redskins scratch a run across in the bottom of the fourth, though the run was unearned as a high throw home from Ford allowed Rylee Deitsch to score on the play.

An inning later, Conner Bruggeman blasted a solo home run to right field to halve the lead to 4-2.

But Huff rebounded to throw a scoreless sixth and Walls recorded the first 1-2-3 inning of the game for Parkway in the seventh.

"By the end of the season we probably could have made out each other's lineup cards," Parkway coach Bryan Schoenleben said. "We knew what pitcher does better against them. (Coach Jason Jacobs) knows the same thing against us. It really comes down to the kids making the plays. It wasn't pretty tonight, but we made the plays and got it done."

Parkway didn't have a hit in its return to Veterans Field on Thursday. But a sacrifice fly by Justin Barna and Ford's shot the day before provided the Panthers the cushion they needed.

"That was huge," Ford said. "We didn't really play that well today. It was just good that we put those runs up when we did."

Forced to play catch-up, the Redskins had chances but couldn't capitalize. They stranded eight runners on base, four of which were in scoring position, plus had another caught in a rundown between third and home during the third inning.

"It's tough to come back from a 4-nothing hole," Jacobs said. "They had all the momentum after that home run they had hit up into the wind. I know today they had zero hits. So our pitching and defense was outstanding today. We scored a couple runs, we just couldn't get those last few across. We left too many on base and we couldn't come up with those clutch hits.

"I would have liked to have faced them a seventh time, but sometimes things don't work out."

Huff allowed five hits and two runs (one earned) while striking out three in his six-inning stint.

"He came with the right mindset and he really did a heck of a job in this game," Schoenleben said.

Ford was the lone player from either side with two hits, finishing 2-for-2 with three RBIs and two runs scored.

St. Henry starter Parker Link gave up four hits and four runs while striking out four in five innings of work. Nate Lefeld posted back-to-back scoreless innings to close the game.

"I've got to take my hat off to St. Henry because their pitching staff does a great job," Schoenleben said. "Both of those guys we saw over the last two days were good pitchers. They're a good ballclub."

At this tournament, though, Parkway was a slightly better ballclub.