A late comeback attempt from the Permian baseball team fell short against San Angelo Central Friday, seeing the Panthers suffer their first District 2-6A loss of the season.
San Angelo Central stepped up defensively to come away with a 4-3 win at McCanlies Field.
After a seven-day break from its last game, against Abilene High, Permian struggled to regain the momentum it created during a nine-game winning streak.
“Baseball is tough to do when you don’t play multiple times a week,” Permian coach Tate Criswell said. “We hadn’t played since last Friday, that’s the best thing I can think of.
“I didn’t have us ready to play, we had a week to prepare and I didn’t have us ready to play.”
The Bobcats wasted no time testing Permian’s pitching, recording three hits in the top of the first inning to push across a pair of runs.
A sacrifice fly from Jake Glasman drove in Sebastian Bravo to put the Panthers on the board in the bottom of the first, but they couldn’t hit consistently through the second and third innings.
The Panthers seemed to get things going in the bottom of the fourth when they had runners on first and third, but nothing came out of the scoring opportunity as a fly out to center field ended the inning.
San Angelo Central’s defense paid off when the Bobcats added two more runs in the top of the sixth.
Ethan Green drove in the first Bobcats’ score of the inning with a ground rule double that hopped over the left field fence.
Green advanced to third base off a fielder’s choice on the next at bat, then scored after an error.
Permian created a seventh-inning rally when Callan Warren doubled to right field and Gavin Thompson was walked.
Bravo loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch and Glasman cut the Panthers’ deficit to one run with a two-run double.
That wouldn’t be enough, as San Angelo Central’s Juandiego Lagunes recorded a final strikeout in relief of Hunter Weidner.
Criswell said he wasn’t surprised by the effort his team put up to try and tie the game late.
“These guys fight, they’re tough and they’ll compete until the very end,” Criswell said. “They know as long as we have a strike left, that we have a shot.
“That was expected and welcomed; we’ll respond tomorrow.”
It was Permian’s first losst since March 12 when it fell 22-8 against El Paso Americas in nondistrict play.
The last time Permian and San Angelo Central faced off, the Panthers came away with a 3-0 win.
The Panthers (22-4 overall, 11-1 district) will close out the series against the Bobcats (7-13, 5-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Donsky Field in San Angelo.
After the game, Criswell challenged his players to learn from the experience they had against San Angelo Central.
“Even when you’re undefeated in district and you play a team that you beat before, in the game of baseball if you don’t play well, anybody can beat you,” Criswell said.
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