Six straight for Panthers

The Hibriten Panthers defeated the Maiden Blue Devils by a score of 7-1 Thursday evening in Lenoir. With the win, the Panthers remain atop the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference with a 7-0 record and 9-1 overall.

“A real good win,” said Hibriten coach Terry Henthorne. “We wanted to get three wins this week. We know that we now have a little break coming up and give our players a little rest. We are going to get caught up on the homework and get back to the important stuff and then get right back at it after the break.”

The Panthers are now off until Saturday, March 29 when they travel to Wilkes Central for a non-conference game.

Hibriten opened the bottom of the first inning with four runs. Billy Copper reached on an infield error and advanced to third on Trent Reynolds' single to right field. He scored on a Gavin Christian single to right field. Joel Woods followed with a single to right and the the fireworks began. Jack Howard belted a towering shot over the left-center field fence for a three-run home run.

The Panthers scored two more runs in the third inning. Copper led off with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on another wild pitch, making the score 5-0. Christian then walked and later scored on Jon Easton's walk with the bases loaded.

Hibriten's last run of the game came off the bat of Dylan Crump. Crump lifted a Brian Huffman fastball over the left field fence for his second home run in the last three games.

Bryan Tuttle earned the win for the Panthers. He struck out seven and scattered seven hits. He did not walk a batter.

Hufman suffered the loss, pitching three innings. Logan Pearson pitched the final three innings.

Howard led the 11-hit Panther attack, going 1-for-2 with the homer and driving in three runs. Crump, Reynolds and Woods were each 2-for-3.

The lone Maiden (2-7overall, 1-6 CVAC) run came in the sixth inning after singles by Jonathan Wyant, Justin Sizemore and Jacob Lineberger.

JV Panthers

win in six

The Hibriten jJunior varsity defeated Maiden 11-1 in six innings. Sean McGarvey was the winning pitcher, striking out four and allowing only three hits. McGarvey was 3-for-3 at the plate. Alex Austin went 3-for-3 and Jonathan Whitehead was 2-for-3 including a home run. Other Panthers with multiple hits were Austin Beard, Matt Wedding, and Jonathan Greene.