Boroff And Panthers Rolling, Halt Triton
AUBURN — The freight train from Lakewood Park Christian is rolling and not slowing down anytime soon.
Mikeila Boroff struck out 18 of the 22 batters she faced, the Panthers made every conceivable situation work in its favor and showed why its the No. 1 1-A team in the state determined to defend its state title after a 9-0 win over Triton in the regional held at LPC.
Boroff looked as dominant as any pitcher in the state Tuesday night, allowing just one hit and three weak grounders while striking out the side in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings. Rise balls, offspeeds, curves, fastballs on the corners – it was all working for the junior ace who has already verbally-committed to Butler.
“We are pretty doggone confident in Mikeila, but if we give her a lead we know what we are going to get,” said LPC head coach David Carnahan. “We are also pretty confident in our defense so if she gives up some hits, we have a great defense that works hard.
“She used all of her pitches pretty well tonight and located pretty well. That is what we want to do. She did a good job mixing it up and frustrating the batters. Again, give Triton a lot of credit, I’m happy they won their sectional and happy for them. They have a good, young team, they will be back.”
Triton’s lone hit came in the fourth inning when Lillie Berger worked a 10-pitch at-bat that ended with a blooper that landed between three Panthers in shallow right field. Otherwise, Boroff was nearly untouchable and had the offense of the LPC steam engine working in her favor.
A one-out walk in the first to Brooke Herendeen had the sophomore chug around to score when Triton tossed Courtney Sliger’s sacrifice bunt into right field. A two-out double from Brittan Carnahan made it 2-0, then a couple pitches later became 4-0 when Suzanne Grimm pounded a Mallorie Jennings offering about 230 feet to straight-away center field.
The shellshocked Trojans were immediately behind the eight ball against an LPC team that won its two sectional games by a combined 38-0 score and has now won its past 15 games by a 159-23 margin. In all, the Panthers are 25-2 and winners of nine straight sectional titles and four straight regional placards.
LPC has played one of the toughest schedules in the state to boot, beating the likes of 4-A No. 2 Northridge, 3-A No. 2 Woodlan, 2-A No. 2 Rochester and made easy work of the 1-A No. 14 Trojans, which end its season with a program-best 22-9 record and just its second regional appearance in school history.
“She is good, the best we have seen this year and we have seen some good ones,” Triton head coach Steve McBride said of Boroff. “I am just real proud of my kids. We didn’t back down and we haven’t backed down all year. We were just out-talented. They have more talent than we do. But you know what, they move up to 2-A next year and I have everyone back. It will take a lot of hard work, and nothing given, but we’ve seen what it takes. Since 2008, we haven’t been here.”
Carnahan added another RBI double in the third and an RBI groundout in the fifth, Grimm an RBI single in the third, Jamie Budreau an RBI double in the fifth and Boroff drove in the final LPC run with a single, bringing home Budreau. Carnahan and Grimm finished with three RBIs each and both scored a pair of runs.
LPC, which will move up to Class 2-A next year, are more than ready to ride Boroff and its total package to a fourth straight 1-A state appearance.
“Our girls have been prepared,” Carnahan said. “We played some pretty good competition to prepare for this situation. That’s part of the process, the girls have bought in and worked hard. So I am proud of them.”
Jennings, who did not pitch as poorly as the scoreline may show, did allow nine hits and walked a batter but struck out six and limited damage in the first and second innings, which could have been much worse than the 6-0 score on the board. The junior hurler from Bourbon finishes her season with 244 strikeouts and will have another season to pile up her already-held school-record K total.
“I thought Mallorie pitched well,” McBride said. “She faced a good team. We really needed to keep it to a one or two-run ballgame. But once we got down 4-0, it kind of changes what we can do.
“It’s just been a good year for us and I’m extremely proud of them. This is a good team we played. Northridge is No. 2 in 4-A and the only loss they had was to this team, that is something. Take classifications away and this is one of the top-five teams out there.”
Lakewood Park Christian (25-2) will meet the winner of No. 5 Pioneer (23-6) versus Kouts (10-13), which will its regional Wednesday night at Pioneer, at the Clinton Prairie Semi-state this Saturday.