By Robert Whitmire

The bats were swinging and the baseballs flying at Bukolt Park Tuesday afternoon as the SPASH Panthers pulled out a 9-8 win over Wausau West in Wisconsin Valley Conference action.  

The win improves the Panthers record to 3-0 in the WVC, 5-1 overall.

Pitcher Trevor Anderson delivers a strike to the plate. (City Times photo)

West was on the board first taking an early 1-0 lead in the first inning. SPASH bounced right back in inning two on a two-run triple to the left field fence off the bat of Gus Turner-Zick.

West knotted the game at 2-2 before Nick Schroeder belted a two run double down the right field line to score Turner-Zick and Matt McHugh.  Evan Mallek rounded out the inning with a sacrifice fly to score Schroeder and the Panthers increased their lead to 5-2.

The Panthers went on to score two runs in the fourth inning, one in the fifth and one in the sixth, then held off a late three run rally by West in the seventh to put the game away.

Senior Trev Anderson was the winning pitcher for the Panthers. Turner-Zick finished the day 2 for 2 at the plate including one triple and a double, 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored. Nick Schroeder went 2 for 4 with 3 with a double and 3 RBIs and Matt McHugh was 1 for 2 with three runs scored.

SPASH travels to Wausau West Thursday for a 4:30 PM rematch.

              R     H     E
SPASH   9      7     0
West      8    11     3