C-R’s early lead against undefeated Portville stymied by 4-run 2nd inning, as Panthers stroll past Rebels with game’s last 6 runs in 7-3 home victory

PORTVILLE — An early engagement on the offensive end settled in relatively quickly between Cuba-Rushford and undefeated Portville across Saturday morning’s battle of the 305, with eight of the game’s 10 runs being scratched across in the first two innings of play.

The Rebels put the Panthers on notice early with a quick two-run lead following some clutch hits towards the top of their batting rotation, but it was all that they were permitted on the attack, as Portville came right back and held Cuba-Rushford without a hit for the rest of the game while capitalizing on big offense of their own to lay claim on what was ultimately a 7-3 home victory.

“Portville came up with some timely hitting and we struggled throwing strikes today as well,” Rebels coach Pat Wight said. “We had some good at-bats and runners on, but we just couldn’t get the timely hit we needed. We had two big fielding mistakes that led to some opportunities for Portville and they took advantage of it.”

The scoring for the Rebels (8-8) commenced the scoring right away with huge swings of the bat by both Eli Sleggs and Dean Frank, as each recorded an RBI single to aid the team’s 2-0 lead of Portville. With the Panthers cutting their deficit in half in the bottom half as their response, Cuba-Rushford came right back with some special teams aid to regain their two-run lead in the second.

But the offense would freeze in place for the remainder of the battle, as the Panthers struck all chords on offense to deliver the game’s last six runs in consecutive fashion — four of them stemming in the bottom of the second to grant them a 5-3 lead of the Rebels they never looked back from, adding one more run in the fourth and sixth innings respectively to help cement the victory.

Cuba-Rushford totaled just three hits — all of which came in the first inning, with Landen Schappacher leading off the game with a single to help coincide with Sleggs and Frank’s hits. On the mound, Sleggs went the first four innings, fanning six and walking seven.

The Rebels are back on the field Monday night with a 5 p.m. visit from Fillmore.

Cuba-Rushford 210 000 0 – 3 3 3

Portville 140 101 X – 7 5 0

C-R – Eli Sleggs (LP) (6K, 7BB), Hayden Schappacher (5) (K, 2BB) and Braxton Clark.

PORT – Ethan Obergfell (WP) (6K, 5BB), Brady German (7) and Cole Keesler, Hayden Emley.