Panthers Baseball Club Tops Lions To Reach Championship

Get ready for a catfight tonight in Pembroke Pines. Make that a fight between some really big cats: panther vs. panther.

The Panthers Baseball Club will meet familiar foe Pembroke Pines Panthers in the championship of the HSBN Fall Classic after defeating the Hollywood Lions 10-4 on Monday in a semifinal. The Pines Panthers also advanced after beating the Raiders 4-0 in the other semifinal.

Paced by a solid mound effort by Chris Koppenhaver and Matt Rothenberg, the Panthers Baseball Club used timely hitting and sound defense to earn the win.

“It was a fairly complete performance,” Panthers manager Glen Pierson said. “We made some really good plays in the field, and that kept us really in it. Our first pitcher, Chris, they got a hold of a couple, but he really threw well. I think he got stronger later. And then our final guy, Roth, came in and really did a great job. He just kept the ball in the zone the whole time. Offensively, we took advantage of some situational hitting. Things worked for us. We pulled back on a bunt and hit a three-run home run on the next pitch. We got guys over in scoring position and we took advantage of some situations. We put the bat to the ball pretty well with timely hits, especially the top of our lineup.”

The Panthers came out of the gate hot on a cool night, scoring two runs in the top of first on a double by Rothenberg and a single by Koppenhaver.

The Lions clawed back in their half of the first to tie it. Mitch Moormann scored on a passed ball, and Danny Vitello came in on Juan Martinez’s RBI groundout.

The Panthers took the lead for good in the third, taking advantage of a passed ball to score twice and getting another run on an error.

Zach Kone doubled in Eric Collazo before scoring on Chandler Cissel’s single in the fourth to extend the Panthers’ lead to 7-2.

The Lions, who hadn’t had a hit since Moormann’s single to lead off the bottom of the first, got back-to-back hits from Moormann and Vitello in the fifth. Vitello’s hit brought in Shane Stockelman, who walked to start the inning for the Lions. Rothenberg relieved Koppenhaver after the Lions loaded the bases with no outs. Jose Colina’s RBI single plated Moormann, but the Panthers turned a double play to get out of the inning without further damage.

Rotherberg hit a three-run homer in the sixth for the final runs of the game.

Now the attention turns to tonight’s final, set for 7:30 p.m. at Flanagan High School.

“It’s a good feeling to get into that championship game,” Pierson said. “[The Pembroke Pines Panthers] are an excellent team. We’re looking forward to the game. It will be a couple of Panthers going at it!”

Playing familiar opponents doesn’t change the game plan for the Panthers, said Koppenhaver, whose fastball low and inside and offspeed pitches made him effective Monday.

“We were just trying to come out here and play as hard as we can no matter who we were playing,” he said. “We have the same attitude whether we’re playing the best team in the nation or the worst team in the nation. They’re a really good team. We were solid on defense, and our bats came through.”

While the Panthers were reflecting on a great win, the Lions were collecting their thoughts about how things could have gone better for themselves. Lions manager Mike Moss said his team just wasn’t able to get itself going.

“We didn’t bring our gloves tonight,” Moss said. “We made an abundance of errors… and when you get in a bad rhythm, some things can snowball on you. And that’s kind of what happened to us today.”

The loss doesn’t overshadow the strong effort the Lions have given throughout the seven games they’ve played in the Fall Classic.

“We had a nice tournament. We got to this point,” Moss said. “We played pretty well overall. Tonight just wasn’t our night. We didn’t come with our best game, but that’s the way it goes. The Panthers deserve the credit. The kid at short played a great game for them, and they swung the bat a bit. We’ll give them credit and move on from here.”

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