Parkview sweeps McEachern; slides into the Class 7A Sweet 16

LILBURN — Parkview’s quest of winning another Class 7A state championship is off and running after the Panthers swept McEachern, 7-2 and 9-3 Saturday afternoon in the first round of the state playoffs.

The Panthers (26-5) received a great outing from Game 1 starter Thorpe Musci, who tossed a complete-game 3-hitter while allowing just one run and striking out seven. In Game 2, Landon Striping tossed five innings of 5-hit, 2-run ball while striking out five to help complete the doubleheader sweep of the Indians.

At the plate, the Panthers tallied 16 runs over the two games. Eli Pitts (4 RBI), Cade Brown (4 RBI), Colin Houck (3 RBI), and Grant Garrett (2 RBI) all turned in good performances at the plate for the Panthers.

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With the win, the Panthers will play host to Richmond Hill in the second round of the 7A playoffs.

“The first round of the playoffs is always tough,” Parkview head coach Chan Brown said. “(McEachern) is a very good team and they have some serious arms. Going into it, we were wanting to play our style of baseball and honestly, they shut that down a little bit.

“We did things at the right time and had some timely hitting. A little of this, a little of that. Overall, we played OK for the first round. I didn’t think we played great, but McEachern has a really good club, so I was just proud to get through it.”

The Indians kept things relatively close in Game 1, but two late insurance runs gave the Panthers enough offense to cruise to the victory. Musci was lights out on the mound and Brown said he was very pleased with the way he pitched.

“Thorpe, I thought, threw really well,” Brown said.

In Game 2, the Panthers jumped on the Indians early. Playing as the away team, the Panthers scored three runs in the top of the first with the big hit coming on a double to left off the bat of Pitts that scored two.

The Indians hit just two home runs as a team during the regular season, both by leadoff hitter Andrew Carter. Looking to get the Indians back into the game, Carter blasted his third of the season in their first at-bat of the game to cut Parkview’s lead to 3-1.

That was as close as the Indians would get from that point on.

Despite not having his best stuff on the day, Striping still managed to toss five solid innings for the Panthers, allowing just one more earned run in the fifth before exiting in the sixth.

“Landon didn’t have his best stuff today, but he’s just a bulldog,” Brown said. “He just competes. I’m really glad to see Jackson Collett come in and do well in relief.”

Collet entered the game in the sixth and tossed two scoreless innings while striking out two. He also helped turn a 1-6-3 double play that ended a scoring threat by the Indians.

After scoring three runs in the first, the Panthers scored four more in the second. Garrett doubled home a run and Stripling helped himself with an RBI single to right. The Panthers extended their lead to 6-1 following a McEeachern error and scored again on a Pitts sacrifice fly to take a commanding 7-1 lead.

Pitts later made it 8-2 in favor of the Panthers after another SAC fly. The junior just missed launching a 2-run homer in the at-bat, but watched as his bell was knocked down by strong wind gusts coming from left field.

“The bottom line is the first round is the first round,” Brown said. “People get nervous and have jitters and you have to fight your way through that. Overall, I thought our team did a lot of good things today to propel us into the next round.”