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By Brian Kalish
May 12, 2011

Edgar– Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…  The Pittsville Panthers softball team takes a lead into the sixth inning against Edgar, only to have Edgar come back in the bottom of the frame to pull ahead and ultimately win the game.  If this scenario sounds familiar, that’s because it happened twice this week– once in Pittsville on Tuesday and again Thursday evening in Edgar.  Pittsville dropped their latest contest by the score of 6-4.  It was their sixth loss in a row.

Thursday’s loss was not for lack of effort on the Panthers’ part.  Pittsville jumped out to a one-run lead in the first inning, then gave up two runs–both of which scored on wild pitches thrown by Summer Wilke– in the second inning. Edgar added two more runs in the third inning to take a 4-1 lead. Considering the difficulties Pittsville has had both offensively and defensively during the losing streak, it would have been easy for the team to hang their heads.  But the Panthers were aggressive on the base paths and pushed across two runs in the top of the fourth to pull within one. One of the runs was scored by catcher Kate Copeland, who had a nice offensive night knocking two base hits.

The Panthers’ signature moment was when outfielder Dallas Oates came up to bat in the top of the fifth.  With the score still at 4-3, Oates laced a triple down the right field line, and then came home on a wild pitch to knot the score at 4-4.

However, the adrenaline rush would only last briefly for the Panthers as Edgar came back in the bottom of the 6th with two runs of their own.  The Panthers went down quietly in the top of the seventh and headed home with another tough loss.

“Yeah, it’s very disappointing,” said head coach Todd Fox.  ”But the effort’s there.  The kids aren’t giving up.  They’re playing right to the end.  Right now, we’re just finding different ways to lose.  And I feel bad for the girls because they’ve worked hard.  But it’ll come around.  They’ll turn it around.”

Pittsville will play Marathon Friday in Marathon.  Pittsville also has a non-conference tournament on Saturday in Colby where they will square off against Abbotsford and Colby.  Fox said the tournament will be a good experience for the team.

“That way we can concentrate on winning a tournament and get out of this streak,” Fox said.

Panther notes: Pittsville had a nice showing in the stands at Edgar.  It appeared as though there were as many visiting spectators as there were home spectators…. Pitcher Summer Wilke mixed in a change up– especially with two strikes in the count– very effectively…  Copeland made two strong throws on stolen base attempts, cutting down one runner.  She likely would have thrown out the second runner, but there was a collision between the runner and shortstop Michaela Wolf to break up the play…  The players and fans were serenaded by the sound of someone chainsawing the trunk of a massive oak tree about 200 yards away from the field…