It was showtime at Woods Field in Marshall, Texas. The Chapman Panthers baseball team and their opponent East Texas Baptist University had an all-time slugfest Saturday afternoon. The two teams combined for 28 runs on 35 hits in route to a 15-13 Chapman victory.
East Texas Baptist jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the second before Chapman answered with five runs in between the 3rd and 4th innings to close the gap to 7-5. It was a back and forth battle the whole rest of the ballgame with both the Chapman and East Texas Baptist University bats exploding.
The whole Chapman lineup lit up the ballpark on Saturday after their eleven-point outing on Friday. Aaron Wong led the way for Chapman with four hits while the top of the lineup batters Brad Shimabuku and Drew Littwin had three hits apiece. The middle of the lineup wasn’t too shabby either with the 4-5-6 batters combining for six hits and four RBI’s.
I caught up with Chapman head coach Scott Laverty to discuss the outpour of runs this series. Laverty said, “You know I am very impressed with how our bats are looking thus far this year. It usually takes us some time to get things going at the beginning of the year, but this group is a little different I guess.” Laverty then went on to add, “While I am happy with the production on offense, I would like to see my pitching staff do a little bit better at controlling the game.”
After winning the Division Three National Championship last season, the Panthers are getting right into the swing of things at the start of this new season. The Panthers are now 7-0 and are looking better than ever. With the emergence of Henry Zeisler, the solid play of Brad Shimabuku and the star power of pitcher Nick Garcia, the Chapman Panthers look ready to gear up for another championship run in 2020.
The Panthers look to get their 8th win of the season on Friday, February 21st against conference opponent La Verne.
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