The Panthers offense came to play on Thursday in an 11-9 victory over the Southland Vikings at Dowling Park in Hammond.

After only scoring one run on Tuesday evening vs the Oilmen, the Panthers bats came to life scoring 11 runs against the Southland Vikings. The offense was quiet over the first two innings but scored in five straight innings after that to push 11 runs across the plate. Three Panthers had two RBIs today in Peter Fusek, Nico Pena, and Sean Conroy.

While the Panthers still took their fair share of walks (8), they worked to be more aggressive at the plate. Coach Glenn was very pleased with the shift in mindset and the results it produced.

“I was big on telling them [the team] to get aggressive,” Glenn said, “Find a way on base, find a way to get a barrel to a ball.”

On the mound, Justin Shassburger put in his first start of the season. He was remarkably effective pitching four scoreless innings on two hits while striking out seven and walking two. Coach Glenn was encouraged by Shassburger’s performance.

“He did well for us,” Glenn said, “He held us in the game well, and our bats came in the game and helped him out well.”

The full box score can be found here: http://baseball.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=577338

The Panthers next game is on Friday against the Chicago American Giants at the Illinois Institute of Technology at 5 pm. The Giants have not played since the Panthers defeated them on Opening Day on Monday.