North Platte’s Ben Jaycox and Jaxson Carpenter celebrate after beating Penney 20-1 in three innings on April 11.
HAMILTON – The North Platte baseball team (11-2) was nearly flawless when they moved to 3-1 in KCI Conference play on April 11.
North Platte is one conference win shy of last season’s total, marking only the second time it has won at least three KCI games since 2017. Penney (4-7) moved to 0-3 all-time against the Panthers in the Hornets’ short history of a program, losing 20-1 in three innings.
North Platte’s offense was rolling, delivering 15 hits. Ben Jaycox scored three runs and had two hits and Colton Kirkham had two RBIs as the remaining lineup had exactly two hits.
After a scoreless first inning, the Panthers started the second inning with back-to-back-to-back singles by Ryan York, Jaycox and John Winkler. Jaxson Carpenter reached on a single to send Winkler home and Dylan Armstrong stole home to make the score 4-0.
Penney snuck one run in later that inning and North Platte responded with a 12-hit, 16-run third inning. During that time, the Hornets had one error and walked five batters.
Chance Garber and Armstrong both doubled in the inning as the rest of the hits were singles. Carpenter had two of his four strikeouts in the bottom of the third inning as he only allowed two hits all night.
Due to the run deficit through three innings, North Platte came away with a mercy rule victory. The program hadn’t won a game by 19 runs in any of the past 15 seasons before surpassing that in the ensuing contest.
That was extended when they took down Kansas City’s Lutheran (8-7) with a four-inning, 25-0 beatdown on April 17, which moved North Platte to 4-1 on the road this season. That win gave the Panthers their sixth straight triumph, making it a season best.
Since 2022, North Platte has won 20 of its 26 home games after only winning 22 total home contests from 2016-2021 and are 5-0 so far in 2024. The Panthers are past the halfway mark and have nine games left – not including the NCS Invitational – starting with a matchup with Plattsburg (8-11) on April 18.