South Charlotte Panthers

The Panthers finished Runner Up to the host Dirtbags in the Impact World Series at UNC, NC State and Louisburg College. In pool play the Panthers finished 3-1 with wins over the Palmetto Sand Gnats 18U, Charlotte Megastars and the Dirtbag 17U. The team took its lone loss of pool play in a 4-3 to the Prep Stars 17Us. In the quarter finals the Panthers beat the On Deck O's/08s 10-2. The team met up with the Carolina Hurricanes in the semi finals and pulled out a hard fought 8-5 victory to advance to the finals. In the finals versus the Dirtbags the Panthers fell behind 3-0 in the first but held the Dirtbags in check the rest of the way yet came up just short in coming back and took a 3-2 loss for the runner up finish. The "Original Panther", Erik Sommerville capped an outstanding career with a memorable weekend of play. Erik was 13 for 22(.591) at bat with 3 doubles, a triple and 6 RBI. On the mound he closed out two games giving up no runs and pitched a complete game in the championship contest giving him 11 innings pitched with 3 runs scored and 5 strikeouts. Erik begins school at Francis Marion University this fall where he will begin play for the Patriots. Justin Schumer also finished his Panther career in the Impact event and went out with a bang going 10-21(.476) at the plate with 3 doubles and six RBIs. The JMan was involved in 4 double plays in the field and pitched 4 innings, giving up 2 runs and striking out 4. Justin heads up to the University of North Carolina Asheville where he begins play for the Bulldogs this fall. Other leading hitters for the tournament were Byron McKoy 11-23(.478) with 2 doubles; 2 homeruns and 9 runs scored; Whit Merrifield 10-23(.435) with a double a triple a homerun and 11 runs scored; Kolby Epley 7-15(.467) with 2 doubles; Michael Melton 6-16(.375) with 2 HR; Corey Norman 5-10(.500) with 2 doubles; Chris Kinard 5-11(.455)with a double; Skip Hutchins 3-10(.300) with 3 sacrifices; Preston Shuey with 4 hits including a double plus 5 RBIs and Dean Boyle with 2 run scoring sacrifice fly balls . On the mound Mike Caldwell picked up a win with 3.1 innings of relief giving up no runs on 3 hits and striking out 1. Whit Merrifield earned his first victory with 4.1 innings of work giving up 2 runs on 5 hits. Tyler Vogler also picked up his first Panther victory with 4 innings of work spreading out 6 hits and giving up 2 runs. Corey Norman in relief picked up a big semi final win with 4 innings of work, bending a little but not breaking with 2 strike outs. Kyle Greenwalt shut down the strong Dirtbags with 3 innings of work, striking out 5 in the process to pick up his fifth win on the season. Skip Hutchins held the Prep Stars in check with 2.2 innings of work giving up no runs and striking out 4. Defensively the Panthers were solid throughout the event. In game one Graham Fronk owned the UNC outfield where he chased down 4 hard hit balls to keep the Sand Gnats in check. Nick Verhein made two web gem plays; one at 3B and one at 2B to keep scoring threats in check. The team turned 8 double plays on the weekend and catchers Kolby Epley and Chris Kinard threw out 4 of 6 trying to steal.