LaGrange completed a three-game sweep of Spalding with a 4-1 win Sunday at Cleaveland Field in Williamson Stadium. The Panthers are 6-0 to start the season for the first time since the 2017 season.
Four LC pitchers combined on a four-hitter. Ethan Fry (1-0) picked up the win with five scoreless innings of work. Fry allowed only one hit, walked one, and struck out six. He was followed by Jack Richards and Stephen Bartolotta. Ethan Kramer threw a scoreless ninth inning to earn his second save of the season.
The Panthers had seven hits in the game. McKinley Erves had two hits, including a double, and two RBIs. Erves batted .636 (7-for-11), scored six runs, and had four RBIs in the weekend series. Jorge Fragoso had a run-scoring single and Cael Chatham drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Fry pitched around a walk and a hit batter in the first inning, stranding a runner at third. Spalding (0-3) committed five errors in the game. The Panthers took advantage of two of them in the third to score three unearned runs.
Chatham reached on the first error with one out. One out later, Rhett Hebert's ground ball back to the mound was booted to keep the inning alive. Fragoso singled through the right side, scoring Chatham with the first run of the game. Christian Dyer walked to load the bases. Erves doubled to left field, driving in Hebert and Fragoso for a 3-0 lead.
The Panthers tacked on another run in the fourth. Jack Layrisson reached on an infield hit, then stole second. He moved over to third on a ground out and came home on Chatham's fly ball to center field to make it 4-0.
Fry finished his day by retiring 13 of the last 14 batters he faced. The Eagles got on the board off Richards in the sixth to cut the lead to 4-1. Bartolotta pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and Kramer pitched around a walk in the ninth to close the game.
The Panthers face Emory on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Cleaveland Field in Williamson Stadium.
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