Hare, Panthers Defeat Wolverines at SRU To Even Season Series

After a series of weather induced rescheduled affairs, the Riverside Panthers and Ellwood City Wolverines found themselves at Jack Critchfield Park on the grounds of Slippery Rock University Friday evening for a WPIAL section tilt.

The Panthers came away with a 9-5 victory behind Zach Hare to even the season series with the Wolverines.

Ellwood City shutout Riverside earlier in the week.

On Friday, Zach Hare slugged two homeruns at the plate and tossed five innings on the rubber to lead the Panthers.

Hare led off the scoring for the visiting Panthers as he homered to left field in the top of the first inning, scoring two runs

Riverside scored six more runs on three hits in the top of the third inning to jump ahead 8-0 early. John Bowser doubled, scoring one run, Christian Lucarelli grounded out, scoring one run, Jackson Barber singled, scoring one run, Dylan Meyer tripled, scoring two runs, and an error scored one run.

Ellwood City rallied to close to a 8-5 defecit in the bottom of the sixth inning and chase Hare from the mound, but his bat would respond.

Hare hit a solo home run to right field in the top of the seventh for an added insurance run as Hunter Garvin shut the book with a two inning save performance.

Zack Hare earned the win for Riverside surrendering three hits and five runs over five innings, striking out 11 and walking four. Nardone took the loss for Ellwood City as he lasted two and two-thirds innings, surrendering seven runs on four hits, striking out three and walking three.

Hare and Jackson Barber each collected two hits for Riverside. Hare knocked in three runs and scored two runs.

Biondi led Ellwood City with two runs batted in from the number seven spot in the lineup. Biondi went 2-for-3 on the day. Biondi and Biskup each collected two hits for Ellwood City. Biskup stole two bases. Ellwood City ran wild on the base paths, collecting four stolen bases for the game. Ellwood City turned one double play in the game.

Riverside (5-1 Overall) welcomes Mohawk on Monday for their next game while Ellwood City (5-3 Overall) next travels to Sto-Rox on Monday for a 4:00 p.m. contest.