Seahawks Blown Away By Lecanto Panthers

Friday night’s home opener for Sunlake’s varsity baseball team wasn’t how they hoped it would be. The Seahawks (1-3) were outplayed and overpowered by the Lecanto High Panthers in the 8-2 loss.

“Couldn’t throw strikes. Couldn’t hit the ball,” said Sunlake Head Coach Dick Rohrberg at the Feb. 25 game.

The Seahawks starting pitcher Tyler Roberts got out of a jam in the first inning, but wasn’t able to avoid an eight-run inning in the third. Roberts was pulled after 2 2/3 innings of work, striking out two batters, and walking two batters. Lane Ketterer came in for relief to end the inning, and was replaced by Cameron Stoltz, who struck out three batters on the night. Both relief pitchers held the Panthers to no runs in their outings.

The Lecanto Panthers pitcher, Thomas Bevis, pitched a complete game striking out 11 Seahawks on the night, and allowing no earned runs. “(Bevis) worked fast, and threw strikes. That’s what you got to do,” Rohrberg said.

Sunlake was able to capitalize on a couple of Panther fielding errors, to score their two runs. Jake Connell and Kevin Tripp were accountable for the Seahawks runs.

Connell was the only bright spot for Sunlake, going 2-2 with a run and a stolen base.

Rohrberg knows he has a young team, and says, “Their work ethic has to be better.”

Sunlake is off for six days before their next game against the Citrus High Hurricanes on Thursday, March 3.

One can expect the Seahawks to get plenty of work in on the field and in the batting cage before their next game to get the bad taste of losing out of their mouth in the meantime.