The Knoxville Baseball squad took down Albia last night while the softball squad suffered a heartbreaking loss. The baseball Panthers nabbed the lead in the 6th inning with four runs to ensure a 7-3 victory on Monday. The game was tied at one when Jaxon Zuck hit a solo homer followed by Evan Eck on the next at bat. Knoxville plated two more runs in the 7th for insurance. Beau Leisure earned the win in relief allowing one hit and striking out two going 2 2/3 innings. Coach Turner Devore tells KNIA/KRLS Sports his team is starting to turn the corner with their approach to the plate.

Devore:
“We’ve cut our strikeouts down big time at the plate and we’ve had some younger guys in the games and they’ve cut their strikeouts down at the plate.”

Knoxville is now 9-13 on the season and 5-8 in the South Central Conference with a trip to Grinnell tonight. Just down the way at the Monroe County Sports Complex, the Knoxville Softball Squad was involved in an epic game that ultimately went to #5 in 3A Albia 1-0 in nine innings. Ashlyn Finarty took the hard luck loss surrendering one run on four hits and three strikeouts. Finarty and Ciara Heffron both had multiple hit games for the now 18-8 Panthers who fall to 5-4- in the conference. Knoxville heads north on Highway 14 to PCM, a game you can hear live on 95.3 KNIA starting at 7:15.