Rugby Panthers Babe Ruth baseball team finished the second week of its 2022 season with a 4-0 record for the Turtle Mountain League on June 16.

“I like the start,” Coach Travis Risovi said of the team, which consists of seven 15-year-olds, one 14-year-old, and “a big group of 13-year-olds.”

Risovi’s son, Tatum, pitched a 10-5 winning game against the Bottineau Diamond Slugs on June 16 at Rugby High School’s Northern Lights Field.

The Diamond Slugs are the defending Turtle Mountain League champs.

The Panthers added the win to their victories over Rolla, Harvey and Cando, whose Bear Cats had proved a challenge to the Panthers high school baseball team.

The Panthers began their offensive in the first inning when Risovi walked to first base. He didn’t stay long, stealing second soon after. Jaden Wald batted Risovi in with a line drive to left field for the first Panthers run of the game.

Alex Berndt followed with a fly ball to a hole in right field, bringing Wald to third base.

Landon Zietz batted next, landing on first on errors that brought Wald and Berndt home.

John Lashman batted Zietz in for a 4-0 lead at the close of the first inning.

The Panthers held the Slugs back in the second inning and continued their hit parade. Wald batted another run in, and then ran home on a wild pitch.

The Diamond Slugs ended the Panthers’ hopes for a shutout when Bottineau’s Rowan Cheshire landed on base on a walk. Grady Glasner would bat him and a second run in with a triple to center field.

Glasner avenged Bottineau by crossing home plate on a wild pitch for another Slugs run.

The Panthers extended their 6-3 lead in the fourth when a base hit gave Risovi another chance at a run. Another hit by Wald followed before Zietz batted both in for an 8-3 Panthers lead.

The Slugs struggled to get traction in the fifth inning before Kaden Bristol batted in two, cutting the Panthers lead to 8-5.

The bottom of the fifth inning and top of the sixth saw both teams’ defenses keep each other at bay.

Another RBI by Zietz followed before a courtesy runner scored the final run for the Panthers on another wild pitch.

After the game, Risovi said the Panthers seemed “in good shape so far” for the Turtle Mountain League playoffs in mid-July.

“We played Cando on Monday and Tucker Volk pitched that one,” Risovi said. “Tucker’s a 15-year-old. Jaden Wald and Alex Berndt pitched yesterday. They’re two other 15-year-olds.

“Then, Tatum came back and pitched today,” he added. So, it’s one of those nice things — I have those older kids to lean on and they’re comfortable in what they’re doing right now.

“Right now, we’re sitting really well,” Risovi added. “We’re 4-0 in the district right now. We haven’t played Turtle Mountain yet and we haven’t played Towner yet. Those are the other two teams in our district.

“I don’t think Turtle Mountain has played a game yet, so I don’t know about them,” Risovi said of the Panthers’ future games.

“I know Towner is just re-starting their program. Brady Schock is coaching them,” he said.

“I’ve coached Brady in high school and I talked to him, and he said there are a lot of young kids excited to play,” Risovi said of the Towner team. “So, that’s nice to see them getting baseball rolling again, too, because they were together in high school baseball and they can come over here and play.”

“It should be fun,” Risovi said.