Baseball heading into regionals

Submitted photo Mayson McCabe rounds 3rd base to score one of the 2 runs in the second game.
The Rugby Panther’s Baseball team is competing in the Region 5 Tournaments next week in Rugby at Northern Lights Field. The first game at 11 am will be Rugby Panthers against the Northern Lights Comets team.
On Wednesday, May 16 in Rolette, the Comets team won over the Bottineau Braves with an 8-4 score. The North Star Bearcats team defeated the Dunseith Dragons with a 15-1 finish. These matches set up the Tournament games for Monday, May 21 which will be played in Rugby at North Lights Field starting at 11 am.
In the starting lineup, Rugby Panthers will play Northern Lights Comets on Monday. The Harvey-Wells County Hornets will play North Star. At 3 p.m. Dunseith will play the loser of the Rugby and Northern Lights game. At 5 p.m., Bottineau will place the loser of the Harvey/Wells County game.
The Region 5 tournament baseball games will continue on Tuesday and wrap up on Wednesday, May 23rd.
Panthers tough it out at Cando
In the previous week of baseball, The Panthers took on the North Star Bearcats at Cando in a Region 5 match. North Star made the first run in the bottom of the second inning, with no score from Rugby yet. But North Star continued to roll forward scoring four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and the game was ‘on’.
Still unsuccessful at the top of the sixth, the Panthers finally got a one hit in the 6th inning but then, the game got interesting with the Panthers in the top of the 7th inning, scoring six runs on a pass ball and a wild throw back to home plate for the Panthers. This big change had them in the lead 6-5 at the bottom of the 7th. However the Bearcats would roar back to tie up the game in the 7th driving the game into overtime with a 6-all.
The 8th inning again, an uninteresting no score, with suspense building for the 9th inning to see what would be the final. At the top of the 9th with the bases loaded, Kelby Gingrich had a RBI walk which drove in the game winning run. The Panthers defense held on in the bottom of the 9th to win 8-6.
The Panthers improved their season to 8 2 with this game, and 8-1 in Region 5 play.
It just proves, it’s never over until it’s over in sports.