Claflin head coach James Randall could only sit and watch in disgust from the home dugout.

There wasn’t much he could do as he watched his Panthers self-destruct in the top of the seventh giving up eight runs to suffer a 12-7 loss to Elizabeth City State in the second half of their Tuesday afternoon doubleheader.

Chris Armstrong started the game for Claflin only to leave after facing the first five batters. The sophomore from Sumter gave up three runs and two hits while walking two before being pulled in favor of Andy Till.

The Vikings (6-10) extended their lead when Lee Person led off the top of the second inning with a solo home run over the left field wall. With that blast, Elizabeth City State went up 4-0.

Claflin came roaring back in the their half of the second inning. On a bunt by Paul Carpenter, Vikings catcher Stephen Green made an errant throw to the outfield bringing in the first two runs of the Panthers rally. Wes Burgess and Reggie Taylor followed the bunt with back-to-back RBI doubles. Wes Platts added a RBI single scoring Taylor making it a 5-4 game.

“We hadn’t been hitting the last four or five games,” Randall said, “but the bats did come through today. I don’t think we’re dependent in our offense. We’re confident in our offense. We know that we can hit the baseball.”

The Panthers (6-15) tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fifth before the implosion. Elizabeth City State benefited from seven walks, three hits and two errors in the inning.

“We’ve been kinda beating ourselves this year,” Randall said. “It’s really starting to become a mental thing with us. We’ve just got to learn how to finish games. Overall, I thought we swung the bats well and played good defense up until that last inning and it costs us the ball game.”

Claflin did end its three-game losing skid with an 11-5 win over the Vikings in Game 1. The Panthers were down 5-4 before scoring seven runs in the bottom of the sixth.

The Panthers now set their sights on winning today’s doubleheader in Raleigh, N.C. against Shaw University. Despite losing four of their last five, Randall believes his team is still upbeat.

“I think they’ll be ready to play,” he said. “They know Shaw has a good ball club and they know we can’t take anybody on our schedule lightly. We have to be up and be ready to play everyday. Hopefully, we can get up there, get it going and get some decent pitching and timely hitting.”

T&D Sports Writer Emery Glover can be reached by e-mail at eglover@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5532. Check out his blog, Cover 2, at www.thetandd.com.

 

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