It was a Big Seven League Jackson County showdown in Hoyt on Monday evening as the Royal Valley Panthers hosted the Holton Wildcats for a doubleheader on the baseball diamond both teams looking to snap losing streaks.

In the battle of the cats it was the Wildcats coming away with the sweep at the end of the day winning game one 7-1 behind strong pitching by Justin Riechick and took the night cap 12-6 for the sweep.

Unlike the first game which was tied early on, the second game featured early offense as Holton pounced on Royal Valley early batting through the order in the first inning and plating four to take the early 4-0 lead after the first inning. Luis Butto had a big two RBI single in the inning for Holton.

Wildcats continued to add runs early as the Panthers struggled with errors early that Holton took advantage of. Royal Valley got the border for the first time in the bottom of the sixth behind a RBI single by Jon Cox, moving it to 5-1 after two. Holton continued to add runs scoring three in the third, while Royal Valley added one in the bottom of the frame and then neither team would score again until the sixth.

Holton used four hits in the sixth to plate three more runs as Andrew Aeschilman had a big RBI double in the inning, pushing the Wildcats lead to 11-2 going into the bottom of the sixth. The Panthers scored two in the sixth and two more in the seventh capitalizing on multiple errors in the late innings by Holton, but the Panthers still fell 12-6.

In the loss Royal Valley was led by Cox who was 2-3 with a run scored and RBI, while Zack Lux was on the base pads three times for the Panthers on the night.

Holton was led by Jason Yingst who was 3-3 with two runs scored, a walk and an RBI, while Butto finished the night 2-3 with three RBI's, a run scored, hit by pitch and reach on an error. Wildcats had every player that saw action on the night on the base pads at least once in game two.

With the sweep Holton moved to 7-8 on the season and turns their attention to a road trip on Thursday as they travel to Perry Lecompton. While Royal Valley with the losses fell to 1-15 on the season and travels to Riverside on Thursday to continue their season.