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‘A lot of pride’: Putnam County baseball places second in Class 1A · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: A lot of pride. Putnam County Baseball places second in
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  Class one. Written by Kevin Schlum, This article is being
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  read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  The Putnam County baseball team did not walk off Illinois
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  Field and Champagne the way it had hoped to on Saturday,
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  but the Panthers still walked off with pride, with a
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  large contingent of family, friends and fans cheering them on
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  following their ten zero, five inning loss to Tremont In
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  the class won a state championship game. It's a little surreal,
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  Putnam County coach Chris Newsom said, I mean, you can't
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  have any disappointment at this level because it's incredible to
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  be here. There's a lot of pride going through my
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  head right now and encouragement. This sets the stage and
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  filters down to the youth who were here. It really
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  helps drive throughout our community. You've seen it throughout the
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  last couple of days down here. The backing is unreal
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  by these folks and the entire community is unreal. It's
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  been a blessing, But ultimately it comes back to the
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  boys and how proud I am and how much. I
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  love those guys. The Panthers matched the best finish in
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  program history and brought home the school's fourth state trophy.
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  It's great to do it with these guys, Putnam County
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  senior Jonathan Stell said, There's no one better. It's like
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  a brotherhood around here. We worked hard for this. We
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  didn't get the job done today, but we went as
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  far as we could and gave it everything we had. Tremont,
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  thirty nine to two, took control from the start Saturday.
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  Putnam County's Trackston Mattingly drew a walk from Treatmont's starter
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  Chase Rhodes to lead off, then stole second, but the
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  Panthers couldn't move him any further. In the bottom half
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  of the first inning, Truman's Griffin Meeker ripped a triple
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  to deep center field to start things off. The Turks
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  got three more hits and benefited from an error to
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  score three runs in the first. After another scoreless frame
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  for Putnam County in the second, the Turks scored two
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  runs and had the bases loaded with one out when
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  thunder and lightning caused a delay. Tremont is probably the
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  best team we've played all year. Mattingley said, I give
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  Chase a lot of credit. I played with him back
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  in fifteen. U he throws hard, he throws well. The
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  whole team can just hit it really well. The fifty
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  seven minute delay did not provide a spark for the
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  Panthers like it famously did for the twenty sixteen Chicago Cubs.
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  In Game seven of the World Series, we went with
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  an opener on the mound with Maddox Pool to hopefully
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  go soft because we knew they were pretty talented. Newsom said,
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  we were hoping to get some more ground ball balls
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  and lazy pop ups, but that wasn't the case. Obviously,
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  they were putting some good barrels on it. Then we
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  go to Cade Zimmerline and they continue to put barrels
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  on it. We had the rain delay. I joked with
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  the guys, who's our Jason Hayward. Then I realized some
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  of those kids were like six years old when that
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  happened and were probably in bed. I think the resets
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  that gave us an opportunity, But they're just super talented
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  and you just have to tip your hat when your beat.
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  They had more talent than we did. They executed better,
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  but that doesn't take anything away from our guys. After
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  the delay, Tremont scored three more runs in the second
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  and two in the third to build a ten zero lead.
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  The Panthers, meanwhile, finished with just two hits. Carter Hawkstadter
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  hit a slow chopper for a single in the second,
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  and Zimmerline lined a single into center in the fourth.
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  We knew they were going to be good, Stunkel said.
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  There were a few mistakes and some walks, and they
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  just hit the ball really well. There isn't much you
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  can do about it when they're hitting gaps all day.
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  With the big deficit, Newsom made sure to get every
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  player into the game. Along with Pool and Zimmerline, Rudy
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  Villa Gomez and Mattingly also pitched, while Tyson Zuniga got
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  an inning in left field and an at bat. Want
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  it to happen when you're ahead, but ultimately we had
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  to scramble there and get everybody in because you never
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  know when it's going to happen again. You can't take
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  it for granted. You have to use the opportunities that
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  are given to you. It was nice to get everybody in. Obviously,
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  we would have liked to be on the winning end.
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  Everybody knows that, but we lost to an incredibly talented
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  Tremont team. Saturday was the final game as Panthers for
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  Mattingley and Stunkel, but not their final game together, as
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  both will play next season at Illinois Central College. I
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  told Jonathan at the start of the year that we
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  were going to get us some big hardware this year,
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  and we did it. Mattingly said, we couldn't be more
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  proud of each other and the whole team.