Maryville fights Hanover and rain
It was a rainy faceoff between Maryville and Hanover on Saturday, Feb. 26. Less than ideal conditions created not only a battle between two teams but a battle against the weather as well. What started out as a double header turned to the cancellation of one game in the midst of a heavy rain storm.
The game started out slow with neither team putting any runs on the board within the first inning. The second inning started heating up for the Maryville fighting Scots. Hanover’s pitcher walked two Scots, which would later prove to be a mistake for the Panthers. Freshman Matthew Morelli was next up to bat with two runners on base. Morelli hit a triple to right field, resulting in two RBI’s.
The earlier walks by Hanover’s pitcher and the hit by Morelli would result in the perfect conditions for junior Jimmy Meredith and senior Kolton Hicks to score the first two runs of the game.
Mayville and Hanover would battle it out for four more innings before any more runs would appear on the scoreboard. The Scots scored two more runs in the seventh inning.
At the bottom of the seventh inning, senior Kendall Catlett doubled to center field taking first base, and Meredith was walked by Hanover’s pitcher once again.
Up to bat next was senior Ian Campbell, who sent the ball to right field, allowing Catlett to run home. Next up, junior Max Bowers would send the ball to left field advancing Meredith to home for the second time this game. This closed out the seventh inning with a total of four runs for Maryville.
Hanover did not score until the ninth inning when Andrew Littlefield hit an impressive home run, closing out the first game with a score of one to four.
During the break between games, the rain started to come down harder, causing a short delay in the second game. Tarps were quickly laid out to preserve the field as much as possible.
“The field has taken lots of water this week so it was far from dry before the game,” said senior Damian Lusby. “During the second game is when the rain really got to its worst and it got to a point where you could not even move because the ground was just mud.”
After a slight delay in the start of the second game, the rain started to let up. The Scots and the Panthers decided to try and proceed with the scheduled game.
While the second game went a little better for the Hanover Panthers, the game quickly started to fall apart. In fact, the efforts to preserve the field from the weather would prove to be too wet, resulting in players slipping. The threat of the injuries of players due to the conditions of weather forced both teams to bring the game to an end early and scratch the second game completely.