The Royal Valley Panthers have been on a roll putting together another strong season on the softball field and that continued on Friday as the earned a sweep in a Jackson County showdown with the Holton Wildcats. Both wins came via run-rule as the Panthers won 12-1 in five innings and 17-7 in 6 innings over Holton. 

The offense, defense and pitching was strong in game one for Royal Valley as the Panthers jumped on Holton and finished off the game via the run-rule in the bottom of the fifth with a Sarah Beam two-run homer to finish the game at 12-1. Beam finished the game with a pair of hits for Royal Valley, while Masey Lafferty and Kate Hanson each had a three hit game with Hanson blasting a home run in the affair. The Panther offense also got a two-hit game from Maggie Schuetz and Lexi Baker, who scored a combined five runs in the game one win. Erica Pruyser provided the strong pitching earning the win the circle for Royal Valley surrendering only one run on two hits. For Holton Annalyss Phillips and Quinn Holaday had the only two hits of the game and Sarah Bond took the loss inside the circle in game one. 

In the night cap the game proved to be more competitive until Royal Valley finished out the game capitalizing on to many Holton miscues to earn the sweep and another run-rule victory winning 17-7 in game two. Holton pounced first in the battle of the cats in game two as the Wildcats took advantage of a leadoff walk in the top of the first and a big two-out RBI single by Makenize Moore help Holton take an early 2-0 lead. The Panthers broke through in the second getting a leadoff walk and with two errors by Holton got baserunners and finished the second inning batting round recording four hits in the frame and six runs to lead 6-2 after two. An RBI double by Schuetz highlighted the second inning for Royal Valley. 

Holton responded in the top of the third as Moore delivered a two-out two RBI double to make it a 6-4 Royal Valley lead going into the bottom of the third when the Panthers batted round again and plated four runs capitalizing on two more Holton errors. Up 10-4 Royal Valley saw Holton claw back into the contest in the top of the fifth as the Wildcats top half of the order did some work again and scored three runs to make it a 10-7 game Royal Valley still in the lead. The Panthers responded again as Holton's miscues continued with more errors and the Panthers finished off the game with four runs in the fifth and three more the sixth to earn the 17-7 win in six innings. In the sixth Beam blasted a solo home run, Baker had a double and Emily Albright had an RBI single to cap the game. 

In the loss Holton was led by the top half of their lineup as Gabby Porras had a 3-3 game with three runs scored and Mackenize Moore finished 2-2 with four RBI's as the loss move Holton to 11-9 on the season. 

Royal Valley had six gals with a multi-hit game and everyone one that played in the contest had an RBI or runs scored. Ali Bryan finished 2-5 with three runs scored and two RBI's, while Schuetz, Beam, Hanson, Lafferty and Baker each had two hits also. The win pushes the Panthers to 16-2 on the season. 

With Regionals on the horizon Holton will have next week off having wrapped up their regular season, while Royal Valley has a doubleheader at Hiawatha on Monday, May 9th to wrap up the regular season.