With the slate of KCI Conference games under wraps for the North Platte baseball team (9-8), the Panthers have ended the regular season with a 2-5 conference record.
After falling short in their first three KCI Conference contests, the Panthers have come out on top in two of their last three before falling to Lathrop (11-5) on April 28. The last time North Platte ended the regular season with more than one conference win was 2018 when it had two KCI victories: one against Plattsburg and one against Mid-Buchanan.
North Platte started off sluggish this spring – losing to Lawson (15-3), East Buchanan (13-3) and West Platte (8-7) – but had a big win against Penney (2-11) on April 14 and came short against Plattsburg (18-6) on April 21. However, the Panthers took down Mid-Buchanan (7-6) 8-6 on April 26.
North Platte never trailed and held off a last ditch effort by Mid-Buchanan as the Panthers had a 6-0 margin entering the fifth inning. The Dragons crossed home plate three times in the fifth inning and one time in the sixth inning, narrowing the deficit to 6-4.
North Platte senior Landon Bartlett rounds third base in the Panther’s first home victory over Mid-Buchanan since May 7, 2009, when North Platte took down the Dragons 8-6 on April 26.
The Panthers responded with a pair of runs – on a fielder’s choice following a ground ball hit by Chance Garber and a walk with the bases loaded – to push the lead back to four runs. Mid-Buchanan scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning, but North Platte held off the conference foe to pull off the victory.
When the game concluded, North Platte had its first home victory over Mid-Buchanan since May 7, 2009. The Panthers entered the day with three consecutive losses to the Dragons dating back to 2019, as Mid-Buchanan had won 20 of the previous 23 matchups over the course of the last 13 years.
In the Panthers’ final conference matchup of the season, four pivotal errors resulted in a 4-2 loss to Lathrop. After three scoreless innings, a Riley Hyde single sent Colton Kirkham home to put North Platte up 1-0.
In the bottom of the inning on defense, North Platte had two errors and walked two Lathrop batters to give Lathrop a 3-1 advantage. The Mules added another run in the ensuing inning as the Panthers went to bat in the top of the sixth inning trailing 4-1 with only one hit on the day up to that point.
Kaden Mullendore doubled and Kirkham singled to score North Platte’s second run, but North Platte was unable to add any additional runs. Jaxson Carpenter struck out five batters and Mullendore had two strikeouts.
North Platte then bounced back and moved one step closer to reaching double-digit victories, which hasn’t been done in more than a decade and a half, by taking down Rock Port (6-6) 11-0 on May 2. The Panthers had 15 hits led by Garber and Meadows who had three hits apiece, and the Blue Jays had seven errors.
North Platte has two games left in the regular season: at South Holt (8-6) on May 5 and at Tarkio with Fairfax (9-5) on May 9. The Panthers will enter the Class 2 District 15 afterwards, which will be at Plattsburg High School.