LocalSportsJournal.com

LEROY–A pitching duel between Hesperia baseball and Pine River ended with the Panthers falling short, 1-0.

Hesperia deployed an odd rotational approach on the hill, using three separate arms through seven innings. Armando Escobedo earned the start, pitching two scoreless and hitless innings while walking one batter and striking out three. Escobedo threw just 29 pitches, 19 of which landed for strikes.

With both teams scoreless through the first two innings and each owning a hefty amount of strikeouts, Hesperia made a change on the mound and inserted Travis Kurtz. Kurtz picked up right where Escobedo left off, pitching three scoreless innings while walking one and striking out four. Pine River did start to find their footing during that stretch, putting two balls in play against Kurtz.

With the game still scoreless, Hesperia started the sixth inning off with a chance to break the stalemate. After two quick outs, Blake Sayer reached first on an infield error. Sayer was replaced by Ian Fox as a courtesy runner and Fox advanced to second on the next at-bat thanks to Kurtz who was hit by a pitch.

With Fox in scoring position, the Panthers simply couldn’t produce a hit when they needed one as Escobedo went down swinging for the third out.

With two innings remaining, Hesperia made one final pitching change. Sayer was put on the rubber to close out the game. Sayer allowed one hit in his first half inning before sitting down the next three batters in order with some help from his infield.

Pine River cracked open the game in the final half inning, picking up a hit and a walk before a fielder’s choice advanced the go-ahead run to third base. A balk by Sayer decided the game and Pine River had a victory.

Sayer was given the loss after allowing two hits and one run while walking one and striking out one.

Hesperia finished their regular season at 7-25 and will now prepare for a rematch with Shelby in the first round of the district tournament. That game will be played in Hart on Saturday at 10 a.m.