The pitching was there for the Wallkill baseball team in its first two games, but the offense was limited, but was good enough for the Wallkill baseball team to earn a split.

It was a pitcher’s duel for all of the regulation seven innings before the Wallkill baseball team walked it off in the eighth inning.

However, James Lee smoked a ball down the line, and scored Bryce DeGroat with the game’s loan run in a 1-0, extra inning victory for the Panthers in the Mid Hudson Athletic League Division I opener for both teams on April 4.

“That’s a huge division win against one of the better pitchers in the class,” Wallkill coach T.D. Mills said. “Our pitching and defense kept us in the game until we figured out a way to scratch one across.”

The Panthers had two outs and nobody on in the inning when Bryce DeGroat walked and then took third on a single by Kyle DeGroat, putting him in position score the game-winning run on Lee’s hit.
Lee had two hits in the game.

“He didn’t mind the pressure situations and he’s in the three spot for a reason,” Mills said. “We work on all this stuff in practice.

Situational hitting with a runner on third, infield in and infield back. You just have to execute in the games and James executed in the right time.”

Kyle DeGroat got the start on the bump for the Panthers and scattered three hits over five innings with nine strikeouts. Tyler Mack took over in the sixth inning with three more scoreless innings for the win. He allowed one hit and struck out four.

FDR’s Owen Brink took the loss with two innings of relief and Bobby Lefevre struck out seven over six innings. The only hit he allowed was a single to Lee in the fourth inning.

“He gave us everything,” Mills said. “We said, ‘here’s your pitch count. We’ll keep you in as long as you’re throwing strikes.’

One of our focus points this year was reducing our walks. Last year, we went 8-11, and I’d say in 10 of those 11 games, we gave up way too many free passes, either through walks or errors or hit batters.”
Brink and Lefevre doubled for the Presidents.

The Panthers went on to visit the Pine Bush Bushmen on April 5 in a non-league contest, giving up four unearned runs in a 4-0 loss.

The Bushmen scored all four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. They loaded the bases with nobody out and then the catcher dropped the ball on a throw home and a misplayed line drive in left field allowed three more runs to score.

“Against a team like Pine Bush you can’t do that,” Mills said. “You’ve got to make all the routine plays, which we didn’t do. In that one inning, we had two errors and a misplayed fly ball.”

Jacob Quiles threw four no-hit innings for the Panthers and struck out nine batters.
The Panthers were scheduled to finish the week on Thursday against the Saugerties Sawyers, but that game was postponed due to weather.

The Panthers are spending Spring Break in Myrtle Beach and hoping some days playing the warmer weather will help them get into a rhythm for the crucial part of the season. They’ll actually play their second game against the Presidents in South Carolina.

They will also practice in the mornings and then scrimmage in the afternoons.

“We definitely should be able to get more reps in,” Mills said. “So, when we come back, we should be in a better situation offensively. It’s going to be for everybody a crazy four or five games in a week with all these cancellations right now.”