Navarro Falls to 5A Victoria East in Panther Classic Championship

(Geronimo) — The Victoria East Titans rallied for five runs in the top of the sixth inning to take the Panther Classic championship in a 5-3 victory over Navarro on Saturday night in Geronimo.

The UIL Class 5A Titans took advantage of a couple of errors by the Class 4A Panthers to score five unearned runs to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 lead and hold on to claim the championship. Navarro hurler Blaine Pircher was the bad luck loser as he pitched five and 1/3 innings only giving up four hits and striking out four.

The Panthers would get on the board first when Navarro designated hitter Cole Zimmer singled home right fielder Landun Taylor in the bottom of the first inning.  Taylor would score again in the third inning sliding under a tag at home on a fielder’s choice to give the Panthers a 2-0.

Navarro would get a triple to deep right field from shortstop Caleb Wood in the sixth inning that would plate catcher Matthew Villanueva to round out the scoring for the Panthers. Wood and Villanueva had two of the four hits on the night for Navarro. Taylor and Zimmer also had hits for the Panthers

After beating Austin Akins 17-4 and Giddings 10-7 on Thursday, Navarro beat Floresville 9-1 thanks to a complete game from pitcher Bryce Nall on Saturday morning to reach the championship game. Navarro head coach Kris Cavazos lauded his team’s effort over the weekend.

“They played great all weekend and even this game, we were ahead five innings to a powerhouse 5A program and they just had a big inning and it hurt us.” Cavazos said. “Overall, this weekend was awesome. I saw a lot of things that I loved and that I’m proud of and we’re gonna build off that on Tuesday and the next tournament.”

The Panthers are 4-1 overall on the season. Navarro will be in Taylor on Tuesday to take on the Ducks before playing in the Austin ISD tournament which starts on Thursday.