Chicago, Ill.- July 26- After holding out in a close contest over the weekend, the result at the start of the week drastically changed.

The MCL Minutemen (8-19) fell to the Crestwood Panthers(16-16) 13-3 in the rematch. The two teams played one another this past Saturday when the Minutemen squealed out a win 4-3. The Panthers capitalized on their next opportunity in a sun heavy seven inning contest.

The Minutemen were able to score three runs. Brennan Brogni (Illinois Springfield/ Flagstaff, Ariz.) brought in two of them early on. Giovanni Lopez (Benedictine Mesa/ St. John, Ind.) came around and scored the third run when he started the sixth inning off with a triple. Justin Keresets (Northwood/ Loves Park, Ill.) brought him home with a single into left field. 

Manager Deandre Gilmore didn’t like what he saw from his team in tonight’s loss.

“It wasn’t really a good game from the start. We have a lot of guys who are tired, and a lot of guys who didn’t show up. We had to go with what we had,” Gilmore said.

The team had a new pitcher make his Minutemen debut. Sam Nagy (Benedictine/ Schererville, Ind.) got the start in tonight’s loss. He took an early command of the zone, throwing 43 strikes and seven strikeouts, and only walking one batter in a little over three innings of work. Gilmore was happy with the way his new pitcher performed at the mound.

“He looked good. We just couldn’t help him out at the plate. If we could help him out at the plate, this would’ve been a whole different ball game,” Gilmore said. 

The Minutemen will take on the Panthers tomorrow for the third straight game at Prairie State at 5:05 pm. The Minutemen will look to take the quick three game series with it all tied up. Follow @MclMinutemen on Twitter to keep up with all the latest Minutemen news and updates, and follow @MCLMinutemen on Facebook to catch the live streams of every game.