“Our bats finally started to work for us,” said Simpson. “In our first game, we had six hits, but it wasn’t enough to win. Tonight, our bats finally started working.”

Brandi Dunkle led the Gremlins offensive attack going 2-for-4 from the plate with two RBI and a run scored while Samantha Ryan knocked in three runs on one hit.

The Panthers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Brit Mohney got on base with a one-out walk, stole second base, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and advanced home on an error by Karns City third baseman Sarah Fleeger when Gremlin’s catcher Sarah Young tried to peg Mohney at third after the wild pitch.

Keystone extended its lead in the third frame when Randi Irwin scored on an error by Karns City second sacker Samantha Bly who made a catch on a fly ball by Kelly McQuistion and tried to make the double play by throwing out Mohney who had wandered off of first. However, Bly’s throw went sailing over the head of Gremlin’s first baseman Lisa Kaylor.

On the mound, Panther’s pitcher Jenny Barrett mowed down nine straight Karns City batters through the first three innings. Barrett allowed no hits, no walks, and struck out three.

Unfortunately for Keystone Barrett’s perfect game was unable to last as Mohney walked Karns City ’s lead-off hitter Allyson Kepple who then stole second. Young ripped a single over the head of Panther’s centerfielder Cassy Hinderliter that scored Kepple. Two batters later, Dunkle laced a single into the outfield that drove home Young.

In all, the Gremlins tallied three runs in the fourth on three hits.

“Once everybody saw (Barrett) once, we started getting more comfortable in the box,” said Simpson. “Don’t get me wrong, she is a good pitcher.”

In the fifth inning, Karns City added five more runs on four hits. Kepple, Young, Bly, Dunkle, and Ashton Paktuz all scored in the inning as the Gremlins enjoyed an 8-3 advantage.

Karns City added another run in the top of the sixth when Kepple was knocked home by a one-out single from Bly.

Kepple, a senior, had no hits in the contest but drew three walks and scored three runs.

 Keystone rallied back to within two runs in the bottom of the frame by taking advantage of three Karns City errors that led to four runs. Also in the inning, the Panther’s Amanda Rodgers ripped a double into the left-centerfield gap that scored Lacey Matthews from first.

After Barrett scored, Simpson replaced staring pitcher Paktuz with Dunkle who came in and retired the last two batters without surrendering another run.

Paktuz, who was credited with the win, worked 5.1 innings and gave up seven runs but only one of those runs was earned.

“I hated to pull (Pakutz), but we needed to do something different,” said Simpson. “And it is nice that we have two good pitchers.”

 Dunkle picked up the save by shutting down all three Keystone batters she faced in the bottom of the seventh.

The loss was the Panthers’ first of the season, dropping them to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in the KSAC

“We made a few errors and we walked a couple,” said Keystone coach John Stiglitz. “We just didn’t play our ballgame.”