After a weekend off from competition, the Knoxville baseball and softball squads get back at it with important South Central Conference games in Albia on Monday. The class 4A #12 softball Panthers already have a win over the Lady Dees this season and are in a must win situation to stay alive for the conference title. Knoxville is coming off a heartbreaking loss to top ranked ADM on Friday and while the loss was disappointing Coach Carla Smith tells KNIA/KRLS Sports the girls need to bring it to the ballpark on Monday.

Smith: “We have to come to the ballfield on Monday down there, and we played them at home and had that advantage, and we seem to always have problems down at their place. We need to see the ball and know what we’re doing out there and hit it hard.”

The Panthers dominated the game earlier in the season against Albia 4-0. On the other side of Panther Drive, the baseball squad gained a huge amount of confidence with a win over Winterset on Friday. It is a busy week for the Panthers with six games in five days starting Monday with a doubleheader at Albia. Knoxville lost to the Blue Demons earlier in the season, a game that Coach Turner Devore says should have been a win. He says the good thing about this is it may be busy but four of the six games are at home.

Devore: “We’ve been on the road a lot and we’re going to get four home games next week with a conference game, and some non conference games from out east. 500 or better each week and we just have to take care of it.”

You can hear the Panthers this week on 95.3 KNIA with the softball contest against PCM on Tuesday and the baseball game Thursday against Clarke.