The Perry Panthers traveled to Dexter yesterday evening to take on the West Laurens Raiders in a must-win region game and the result was a 7-6 Raiders victory in 11 innings to capture back-to-back region 2-AAAA titles. The game started with the visitors pouncing on the host by plating five runs in the top of the first highlighted by a Kam Vandersee grand slam in his fist at-bat since March 14th.
In the top of the third, Vandersee recorded his fifth rbi via a single to give the Maroon, Gold, and White a 6-0 lead going into the last of the third. The last of the third is where West Laurens would begin to make it’s rally as they would plate a run to get on the board and with two outs on the board, the Panthers could have gotten out of the inning without giving up another run but an error would result in two Raider runs to cut the gap down to 6-3 Perry.
The Raiders continued their rally in the last of the fourth by plating their fourth run of the contest that was scored via an rbi and then they got another run via a Panthers’ error to cut the gap down to 6-5 going into the fifth inning. In the last of the fifth, the host plated one run to tie the game at 6 a piece which would be the score going into the sixth and the game would stay tied for the next 5 1/2 innings.
In the last of the 11th with two outs on the board with a runner at third base, West Laurens would hit a bloop single that would fall to walk-off Perry to win 7-6 and also claim the region crown.
This game was bonkers and so are these numbers, both teams combined for 40 Ks and a staggering 434 pitches among five pitchers. West Laurens improves to 17-8 overall; 11-0 in region play while the Panthers fall to 19-5 overall; 9-2 in region play after dropping their third consecutive game and these two will meet again at the Panther Pit tomorrow evening.
