The Nashville Panthers?

Our first inter-league match-up of the season is a doubleheader tomorrow with the Nashville Panthers, from the upstart Tennessee Summer Collegiate Baseball Association (TSCBA for short). And just who are these Cats? Are they just another breed of feline niggling into our Yard?

With a look on the TSCBA website we can see that the Panthers have the best record in their league at 10-5. They have a team batting average of .275, (the Railroaders average is.255), with 7 players batting over .300. Of the 115 hits total, 20 are for extra bases and there are no homeruns on the year (we have 11 after our last game). For Panthers, they seem a bit slow with only 16 stolen bases in their 15 games played. Our train has 44 in 18 games total. They have scored 52 runs averaging 3.5 per game, and the Railroader total 106 averaging 5.8 per game.

On the pitching front, the Panthers team ERA is 2.73 from a core of 11 pitchers. We’re weaker in this area with a team ERA of 4.16. So combine that with the Panthers better batting average, and we’d better be on our toes with defense! And speaking of Errors, the Panthers have 21 in the 15 games; while in our 18 games we have 37. We’ve done better over the last 3 games with only 3 errors but still, any error is one too many. With the Panthers, it could kill us!

It seems to me that the key to winning these games will be Defense. The bats seem hot and we have the speed to get it done on the bases. The Panthers have 4-1 record against other Kitty League teams this year, with their only loss coming at the hands of the Pirates. Let's give them a double-defeat tomorrow!