It was a battle for first place in the South Central Conference last night, and Knoxville Baseball returned home with a one game lead over Davis County after a convincing 11-1 victory in game one. Kevin Woodhouse earned the pitching win in the opener, and improved his record to 4-0 with six strong innings allowing just one unearned run on five hits. The game was close until Knoxville scored three in the fifth and added five more runs in the seventh to pull away. Tony Salato scored three times, and he and Nolan Wallace each had two of Knoxville’s eight hits in the game. Coach Joel Johnson tells KNIA/KRLS Sports Salato’s hitting has skyrocketed over the offseason due to being more disciplined at the plate. Game two was suspended in the fifth inning with Knoxville clinging to a 1-0 lead. On a night where most of the state was rained out, it was not the weather that ended the evening early, but rather a pesky bank of lights in right field that would not turn on and made play too dangerous to continue. The game will resume next Thursday in Knoxville during a previously scheduled return trip by the Mustangs. Knoxville is now ranked number six in Class 3A is now 10-1 overall and 7-0 in the South Central Conference. The Panthers will play Humboldt tonight at Principal Park in Des Moines in a game that is now scheduled to start at six P-M and can be heard on AM 1320 and 95.3 KNIA streamed live at kniakrls.com.