North Platte senior Colton Kirkham struck out five Bishop LeBlond batters as the reliever in the Panthers’ 18-8 postseason win at Perkins Park on May 13.
PLATTSBURG – Being on the verge of a stunning, first-round postseason loss, the North Platte baseball team (18-3) poured out 15 runs in the final four innings to eliminate Bishop LeBlond (5-16) at Perkins Park on May 13.
Being the No. 1 seed, North Platte had a first-round bye in the Class 2 District 15 Tournament and had nearly a week off from its season finale loss to Kearney (25-7) – who is the No. 2 ranked team in Class 5 – on May 7. The Panthers beat the Eagles 8-4 in the Northland Christian Invitational on April 27 with the postseason rematch being much higher scoring.
LeBlond went up 1-0 in the top of the first inning and led 7-3 in the top of the third inning. Jaxson Carpenter started on the mound for North Platte and Colton Kirkham came in for him midway through the top of the third, forcing two outs and giving up two runs before heading to the dugout.
The Panthers only had two hits and three runs in the first two innings before coming away with a four-hit, four-run third inning. Their offense kept rolling in the fourth inning thanks to some defensive mistakes by the Eagles.
There were three early walks followed by Ben Jaycox stealing home on a wild pitch. Ryan York had a 2-RBI single and Creek Johnson sent York around the bases with a double.
The first five North Platte batters were walked in the fifth inning, scoring two more runs, and the margin was pushed to 16-7 on back-to-back doubles by York and Johnson. LeBlond snuck one more run in the top of the sixth inning when there was an error with two outs, but Kirkham closed the inning out with his fifth strikeout of the night.
Carpenter singled and Kirkham was hit by a pitch to put two runners on base as a Chance Garber double made the score 18-8 and the game was called due to a 10-run deficit with that many innings played. In what started off as a No. 1 seed being on upset alert ended with a mercy rule victory and a berth to a district title game.
The Panthers have won two of their last three district games after only recording two total postseason wins from 2015-2022. North Platte will play third-seeded Polo (11-8) on May 15 at 5 p.m. with a district title on the line.