Davenport 12, Parkside 4
The Parkside baseball team traveled to Davenport and opened their final regular season series on Friday with a 12-4 loss at the hands of the Panthers.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Rangers opened the game with a two-run top of the first innings thanks to an RBI sac fly from senior Carlos Arteaga and an RBI-single from senior Dominic Esposito. Redshirt-senior Casey Oliver scored on the Arteaga fly ball, and redshirt-senior Austin Emanuel scored on the Esposito single. After taking that initial lead, Parkside allowed 12 unanswered runs. The Rangers ended that streak in the top of the ninth when Arteaga walked and Esposito homered to left center.
 
Freshman Phillip Harper started his first game of the year on the mound, pitching the first 4.1 innings allowing seven earned runs on 10 hits. Junior Matt Helwig pitched 2.2 innings, giving up five earned runs, and senior Alex Saunders pitched the eighth inning scoreless.
 
STATWORTHY
Esposito led the way offensively for the Rangers, going 2-for-4 with a home run and three of the four Parkside RBI. Arteaga had the other RBI, going 1-for-2 and drawing a walk. Emanuel finished the day 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The two teams will continue their series tomorrow with a noon & 3 p.m. doubleheader. The series wraps up on Sunday at 11 a.m.