MINT HILL, NC – On Tuesday night the state’s number one ranked high school baseball team, the Providence Panthers, made the short trip to Independence High School for the first of two games in the  Southwestern 4A Conference.

The Panthers got an early start scoring three runs in the top of the first inning and adding two more in the top of the second.   In the top of the third inning, Providence plated its sixth run.  In the fourth inning, the Panthers added a seventh run taking a 7-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the fourth inning Indy’s pitcher, Tyler Spicer led off with a single to center field.  Luke Chantry followed with another base hit putting runners on first and second with no outs.  Garrett Lawerence followed with a hard-hit grounder to the Panther’s shortstop who threw to third base forcing Spicer out at third.  With runners on first and second, PJ Chiles hit a shot to left field scoring Chantry.  The Patriots’ second run came on a Jake Stanley hit to center field scoring Lawerence making the score 7-2.

The Patriots held Providence scoreless for the last three innings while scoring one run in the bottom half of the seventh inning.

With two outs, Thomas Miller reached on an error, then stole second base.  Daniel Ramos hit a double to center field scoring Miller to make the final score 7-3 in favor of the Providence Panthers.

Providence       3 2 1 1 0 0 0  – 7

Independence  0 0 0 2 0 0 1  – 3

The second game in the season series was played on Friday night at Providence High School.  This time the Providence Panthers took the conference win in five innings.

Providence posted four runs in the first inning and one run in the second inning to take a 5-0 lead going into the top of the fourth inning.

Indy’s Joseph Reddish led off the fourth inning with a double to center field.  Reddish stole third and scored on a Tyler Spicer sacrifice fly to center field for Indy’s only run of the night.

Providence answered back with three runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth to take an 11-1 victory.

Indy drops to 2-4 in conference play and the Panthers remain undefeated in the Southwestern 4A Conference.

Independence   0 0 0 1 0   –  1

Providence        4 1 0 3 3  –  11