Palmyra tops Hannibal 15-0 on Senior Night

Nothing is guaranteed today.
Both the Hannibal Lady Pirates and the Palmyra Lady Panthers wrapped up the regular season Tuesday night with a 15-0 Palmyra home victory before heading into their respective district tournaments.
For the Lady Panthers, the win meant just a little bit more.
“Basically, we just wanted to have a good Senior Night and not screw it up,” Palmyra senior pitcher Taylor Baxter said. “That was what everybody was talking about.”
Last season, the Lady Panthers did not come out with the strongest game for the seniors. Not only did Baxter give up her first earned run of the season, but the eventual State champions even trailed 3-0 after the first inning before winning the game 9-3.
With a determination that such history would not be repeated, the Lady Panthers got down to the business of scoring early with a first-inning run, which they followed with another in the second.
But for a team that came into the game 2-22, the Lady Pirates were producing solid defense, which hannibal coach Luke Goodman said his team took pride in after the game.
“I think they are happy about the way that it went,” Goodman said. “There’s nothing you can do about the balls that they hit. They just hit the ball hard and put it places that we weren’t. You can’t do anything about that. You take some of those away and it is a lot closer game. We held them really close there for a while.”
The small run-margin would be short-lived. In the third inning, Palmyra ripped into the Hannibal defense for eight runs in the third inning. But, as Palmyra senior first baseman Kayla Wittler can attest, the last two runs came at a steep price.
After launching a double into the outfield that drove home two runners, Wittler made a bid for third base. When she slid hands-first into the bag, the Lady Panther felt an extreme amount of pain in her right thumb.
“It looked like it was broken,” Wittler said. “It just went sideways and it freaked me out. It hurt really bad.”
Fortunately, it was only dislocated. With the help of a friend’s father, she popped it back into place, at which point, she had only one thought on her mind — getting back out on the field.
“I mean, it’s Senior Night,” Wittler said. “I wanted to finish the game that I started.”
But Palmyra head coach Joe Brandenburg retired the enthusiastic infielder for the night, replacing her with sophomore Kindra Henze. Part of that decision had to do with the fact that the Lady Panthers, as a whole, were well on the way to a win. Before the game was finished, every single girl in the Palmyra line-up had at least one hit off of the Lady Pirates for a final total of 13.
Brandenburg said that he was especially proud of the fact that his team was able to work so well at the dish.
“We needed a good hitting ball game ... and I think that is what we got going into Districts,” Brandenburg said.
In comparison, the Lady Pirates had one hit off of Baxter in four innings of work — a short popup by Alyson Conn in the fourth inning that landed in front of home plate and provided enough time for her to get on base.
Goodman said that while it isn’t a win, that hit was a small victory for the team.
“Taylor is a good pitcher, but I’m proud to say that we busted up the no-no,” Goodman said.
Hannibal now faces the prospect of a first-round district game as the No. 6-seed in the tournament against the No. 3-seeded Timberland High School today in Wentzville.
“I think that this is actually a little bit of a warm-up for us,” Goodman said. “We are not getting any respect at Districts. We are going to go in there, use the momentum from tonight and try to play the upset.”
Palmyra will have to wait a little longer to get going with the district tournament. The Lady Panthers get the luxury as the No. 1-seed in the district of waiting for the result of today’s game between the Monroe City Lady Panthers and the Van-Far Lady Indians and facing the winner on Thursday.
Brandenburg said that his girls have expressed a sort of Catch-22 conundrum with Thurday’s game.
“It’s hard to describe how excited and ready they are for Districts to get here,” Brandenburg said. “They don’t want the season to end, but they want these games to get going. We are ready for every game from this game forward.”