In the words of Knoxville Baseball Head Coach Joel Johnson after a 10-3 win over Albia on Thursday night, “that’s a big win!”

Knoxville completed the season sweep of the Blue Demons, and combined with losses by Centerville and Chariton, the Panthers regained first place in the South Central Conference. Coach Johnson told KNIA/KRLS Sports that winning another conference championship continues to be the primary focus of his young ball club. They control their own destiny with seven games left to play in a heated race where four teams started the night within one game of each other at the top of the standings.

Sophomore Ben Wallace started on the mound for Knoxville and was magnificent giving up just one run in four innings of work and striking out eight. He gave way to the bullpen and Junior Blake McClung who was nearly as dominating except for an odd sequence in the sixth inning where Albia recorded three of the strangest hits in a row, all with two outs. Then a balk allowed the Blue Demons to tie the game 3-3.

However, the Knoxville offense exploded in the bottom of the sixth with seven runs on five hits in the frame to break the game wide open. Calyn Bumgardner, Blake McClung and Justin Little all had multiple hits for Knoxville. Jacob Zuck, Bumgardner and Little all had multiple RBI in the winning effort.

Knoxville Baseball is now 10-10 overall on the season and 9-2 in the SCC. The Panthers are back at it tonight on the road at Perry in a non-conference game that can be heard live on AM 1320 and 95.3 KNIA.

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at Knoxville

Albia 100 002 0 – 3 7 2
Kville 100 117 x – 10 10 0

WP – Blake McClung (3-1)
LP – Tyler Maddison (7-3)

Albia (17-7, 9-4)
Knoxville (10-10, 9-2)