North Platte senior John Winkler fields a ball from his knees to complete the out in the Panthers 5-0 victory over Northland Christian to win the NCI on Aprill 27.
KANSAS CITY – North Platte (17-2) will forever be imprinted in the history books of being the inaugural champions of the First Annual Northland Christian Baseball Invitational on April 27.
In the newly built multipurpose field at Northland Christian High School, North Platte was the last team standing in the conclusion of the tournament. The Panthers only played two games and started with an 8-4 win over Bishop LeBlond (4-11).
Colton Kirkham set the tone with an RBI double in the first inning and the Panthers added two more runs for an early 3-0 lead. Kirkham and Grady Coons scored on the same play when Ben Jaycox grounded out to the shortstop with one out.
The Eagles chipped at the deficit in the fourth inning and the Panthers entered the dugout up 3-2. Jaxson Carpenter doubled and Kaysen Iske singled to score three more runs.
North Platte pushed the lead to 8-2 after John Winkler singled to right field to send Iske and Kirkham across home plate. The Eagles put two runs on the board in the seventh inning and the Panthers advanced behind four strikeouts by Carpenter and three strikeouts by Creek Johnson.
Northland Christian (19-4) met up with North Platte in the championship and lost 5-0 although the first four innings were scoreless. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Winkler reached on an error and the Panthers used that as momentum to finally get on the board.
Jaycox and Johnson both singled to load the bases with two outs and Carpenter stepped up to the plate. The senior connected on a fly ball to right field and Winkler went home.
Kirkham struck out two batters in the bottom of the fifth inning and sailed a home run over the left field fence in the first at-bat of the sixth inning. Later on, the bases were loaded and Johnson reached first base on an error to send Winkler and Hunter Palmer across home plate to push the Panther lead to 5-0.
Kirkham struck out two more batters to put his strikeout total to 10 on the day and the Trailblazers were shut out on their home field for the first time. He also had two of the seven hits and was the only North Platte batter with more than one.
The Panthers beat Lathrop (5-10) on the road for the first time since 2015 on April 29, ending the regular season with a 6-1 KCI Conference record. Their only loss in conference play was to Lawson (15-4) early on this season.
North Platte still has a chance to have a share of the KCI Conference Title if Lawson were to lose to Mid-Buchanan (14-6) on May 1. If that doesn’t happen, the Panthers will take second place in the conference.
The Class 2 District 15 Tournament hasn’t had official seedings yet, but North Platte is in prime position for the No. 1 seed. Before that, the Panthers will head to South Holt (13-3) on May 2 and Tarkio (7-7) on May 6.