FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nick Kane
Highland High School
773-595-6191
Highland, IN– AUG 1-It is officially official. The Indiana Panthers will take on the top seeded Lake County Corn Dogs in the first round of the 2023 Northern League Playoffs. The Panthers will have to get through the toughest team in the league if they want any chance to play for a championship. The Panthers are hoping Tuesday’s game is not a preview of what is to come as the Corn Dogs won their franchise best ninth game in a row in a game where they outplayed the Panthers from start to finish.
Joelmis Mendez got the start for the Panthers and surrendered two runs out of the gate. Mendez limited the damage and left a couple Corn Dogs on base. The Panthers cut their lead in half when Beau Polickey reached on an error and was brought in by a Josh Outlaw RBI groundout.
Both teams went quietly until the top of the fourth inning where the Corn Dogs exploded for six runs. Mendez allowed six runs and was taken out of the game with one more out to get. Dobai was brought in for his debut as he allowed the baserunner he inherited to score. It was 8-1 Corn Dogs.
Adan Vega and “Scooch” Scumaci each had an impressive scoreless inning, but the Panthers offense was unable to manufacture runs.
They picked up two in the bottom of the sixth as Outlaw scored off of an error and Ryan Doubek had an RBI single. The game only went seven innings and that was all that occurred.
The Panthers completed their homestand with an 8-3 record and snapped their six game winning streak. With this loss, the Panthers officially clinched the four seed in the playoffs and are set to take on no other than the Lake County Corn Dogs in round one of the playoffs.
The Panthers will have two more road games to close out the year, including traveling to Nappanee Wednesday, August 2 to take on the Miracle one last time. First pitch is scheduled for 8 PM EDT.
BOX SCORE-
http://thenorthernleaguestats.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230801_we59.xml