Panthers Overcome Early Mt. Hope Lead

The Mt. Hope Huskies, the 16th seed in the D-II playoffs, grabbed an early 2-0 lead against No. 1 but the Panthers rallied for a 5-2 win on May 25 at Johnston Memorial Park.

Dylan Pingitore picked up the victory for the Panthers with a complete-game five-hitter, and Joe Simeone took the loss for Mt. Hope, after Johnston tagged the righty with one run in the fourth inning, two in the fifth and another pair in the sixth.

Simeone’s performance in the first, second and third innings gave the upset-minded Huskies an opportunity to establish an advantage Wednesday.

“, but the gentleman who pitched today, he didn’t pitch against us the first time,” said Johnston head coach Stephen DeMeo. “He was very good. He had us off balance and it took us a while to get adjusted.”

Before the Panthers could power up, Eddie Botelho jump-started the Huskies' offense with an infield single in the fourth inning. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, then scored the game’s first run with Josh Marabello’s one-out double to right-center field.

Marabello moved to third on a sacrifice bunt from Trevor Ensign, then gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead after another breaking ball skipped away from Johnston catcher Ryan Geraghty.

Greg Doutre responded with a home run for the Panthers, but they still trailed, 2-1, after four innings.

Johnston erased the deficit in the fifth with a sac-fly from Pingitore, and the Panthers took a 3-2 lead into the sixth after junior Gian Bianchi’s two-out, RBI-single plated sophomore center-fielder Chris Pistacchio.

Johnston tacked on two more in the sixth with back-to-back home runs from Doutre and Nick Loffredo, and Pingitore pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to seal the victory for the Panthers.

“It was a good baseball game. It’d be a great baseball game if we won,” said Mt. Hope head coach Robert Millard.

The double-elimination tournament continues May 26 with Johnston scheduled to host Juanita Sanchez and Mt. Hope traveling to Scituate.